Mentor and his Protégé
by EmbracEternity
Summary: OOC. AU. This fic dances around the idea of "What if Dumbledore chose Harry to be his Apprentice" Mostly Harry-centric. Quite a fast pace of story telling. Good!Albus Slytherin!Harry&Ron Pyromaniac!Hermione Feat. Voldegin and Poet!Fleur. Silly Rhymes too!
1. Chapter 1

_Mentor and his Protégé, _a Harry Potter fic

Disclaimer: Harry Potter universe was not, is not, will not be mine etcetera. It belongs to J.K. Rowling and folk from Warner Brothers, Bloomsbury, and awfully a lot more. BUT MY RHYMES ARE MINE! MWAHAHAHAHA!

**AN: There is a saying - **_**If there is nothing else to read, write! **_**So, after reading so many fanfiction, I decided to write my own piece of work. I just ask you, oh great and fearsome reader, to take my English grammar easily, because it's not my native language. I try to make the story's pace moderately fast, because, hello? Who likes to read about Harry jogging around the lake. It's very AU with plenty of 'what if?' The story mainly will dance around the mentor-protégé relationship between Dumbledore and Harry. Also, if you don't like my silly idiotic rhymes, please just read canon one's instead. The first three years will be **_**much **_**shorter than the last four (the story will be in 4 parts – Prologue (years 1-3), year 4, 5, 6, 7), so don't become incredulous if you find huge jumps here and there. Chapters will be sometimes short, sometimes long. Ah yes... I made Divination lessons not elective, but, instead standard – Who cares?**

**AN2: I don't have anything against gay people, I don't think that reader is stupid and I don't try to promulgate light drugs, please people, be reasonable, it's just for the sake of rhyme and fun. And NO this note 2 doesn't mean that Harry or some other character, original or canonical, will smoke weed/cigarettes/whatever.**

**AN3(01.10.2011): Dear readers, after I skimmed the Prologue I found a horde of mistakes in it, e.g. **_**thing **_**instead of **_**think**_**, or some nonsense instead of what was meant, so here you go - the major revision of the whole prologue. Please tell me if it's better now or I'm just wasting my time.**

_Chapter One: Surprise!_

The night of October 31st 1981 was truly beautiful. It was a kind of night which writers and poets and great thinkers loved to exalt so much. Just imagine the scenery: a huge silvery crescent, surrounded by myriads of stars on the pitch black canvas of the night. Any accidental spectator would stop whatever he or she was doing and freeze to bathe in its glory, breathing with full chest the fresh cold air.

One place though surely had all its occupiers asleep - in a small town of Little Whinging, Surrey, The United Kingdom, in the Privet Drive, house number four.

A manager of a small company, called 'Grunnings', who was a type of man people tend to call 'fat' (although 'whale' would fit him more), was sleeping with his wife, a thin woman with a horsey face, peacefully. Their little one year old son, who surely was already a miniature copy of his father, too was having some colourful dreams. If Vernon and Petunia Dursley knew what was about to happen they would call the police and barricade their whole house, twice, but alas, or fortunately, they didn't.

The Dursley patriarch woke up suddenly - a terrible feat of hiccup had hit him. He had a sudden feel of foreboding - something was about to happen, and he knew he wasn't going to sleep this day any more.

* * *

><p>Life was a hard thing, utterly unforgiving and tended to lack any kind of justice or kindness. Albus Dumbledore knew it better than anybody else in the, wizarding or none, world, in his ninety nine years of life so close to a whole century. He had a small child, who was wrapped in nappies and was currently sleeping calmly, unaware that both of his parents had been killed today.<p>

And that fact, that little boy's parents were killed by a cruel dark wizard called Voldemort (although everyone but Albus and a few other people preferred to call him you-know-who out of their fear), and that the aforementioned boy was the main reason of the Dark Lord's death, was going to be all over the headlines of any self-respecting newspaper, tabloid, magazine, of not just the wizarding Britain, but of the whole wizarding world.

But Albus Dumbledore knew something that no any other wizard or witch would even try to think about - he knew that he was one of the main reasons of Potter couple very early demise. Such a beautiful and cheery couple they were.. Now dead, not even reaching their third decades of life.

The old wizard also knew that self-pitying was the least necessary thing right now - it would never help little Harry in any way.

Albus and Harry weren't alone - an old friend of the former was standing behind him. She was a strict elderly woman with glasses, dressed in a hat and plain black robes.

Dumbledore turned to his faithful friend, his sad facial expression explaining everything he wanted to explain much better than any words would ever achieve to.

"It's all my fault, Minerva. My political opposition is right - I am the old fool who is starting to loose his grasp. I failed again, naively thinking that a simple Fidelius Charm would save Potters from Voldemort..." he said, his usual eye twinkle having a nice vacation somewhere far far away from the British Islands.

"You are just a human, Albus, like all of us are, and humans tend to make mistakes – some of us more, some less. Nobody could ever foresee Black's betrayal - he seemed to be James' best mate. I still remember how strong their friendship was – they were brothers in all but blood, always inseparable." Minerva said, her words soothing the pain Albus was feeling.

"Forgive me, Harry. For everything the foolish old man did to you. I will dry the oceans, revert the skies - everything in my power to make you live a life you want. This I swear on my immortal soul."

Once these words were told, there was a bright blue flash of magic, which sealed the wizard's oath.

* * *

><p>Knock, knock, knock... Nobody had answered... Albus and Minerva waited patiently... After five minutes of standing idly by the entrance door of the Privet Drive Number Four, Albus had finally lost his seemingly infinite patience and rang the doorbell.<p>

Heavy footsteps and a kind of swearing that would make a veteran sailor blush like a pupil of a school for young maidens of the eighteenth century could be heard by anyone who would choose to be in close proximity of Dursley's household, but, fortunately, it was very late at night and people lived here as precisely as clock mechanism worked - at 7 am waking up, at 10 pm going to bed.

The entrance door was harshly swung open by an obese man with walrus-like moustache and small black piggish eyes.

"I don't know who you are and, honestly, I don't give a damn!" He started shouting, spitting saliva out of his huge mouth. His walrus-like moustache trembling in anger made him look even more intimidating. Yet after a closer look at the late visitors he was thunderstruck. "Wait! I know! You are those wand-pointing, nonsense-shouting freaks! Get out of my house! There is nothing here for you!" Vernon roared and tried to shut the door.

At this moment, some nearby observer could see a flash of steel in the aged wizard's eyes. Some unimaginable, harsh force stopped the fat man's attempt to close the door, making it absolutely immovable.

"Hello, Vernon. I see you haven't changed at all." Dumbledore greeted, his eyes cold. Not even a hint of smile was on his wrinkled face. "I have a proposition for you, to hear and, maybe, even accept."

"Did you even hear me, old freak? I don't want to hear any nonsense from you!. And stop doing your abra-kadabra nonsense right this instance, or I'll call the police and let them deal with your deranged kind." Vernon Dursley shouted angrily, shaking his right fist in front of Albus' face.

"Oh well, I just wanted to be polite, you know..." the old wizard whispered.

The door started to open on its own, moving Vernon away.

The pair entered without an invitation, audible or silent, taking in their surroundings for a few moments. They took blank-faced fat man by hands and slowly, but surely proceeded to the living room, dragging the resisting fat man with them.

Annoyed looking Petunia chose this moment to grace everybody with her most delightful appearance.

Her eyes widened in utter terror and she started to scream like a banshee.

"What's the matter of this? Who are you? VERNON! Aaaargh! NO! It's you again! What do you want from us? You won't take away my Dudders, freaks, he is an absolutely **normal **boy!"

"Calm down and sit, please, Petunia - we have a long discussion ahead." Dumbledore said, looking straight into her eyes. He subtly cast a quick succession of calming and cheering charms on her - he didn't have time to spare for a drama.

"Alright." she whispered blankly and sat on the edge of the sofa which her husband currently was occupying.

"Now I'm going to release Vernon from the spell on the condition that you will listen to my offer and think it through. That is very simple, really"

Minerva saw twinkling in Albus' eyes and her mouth corners twitched just a tiny little bit - she needed to keep the strict demeanor!

The negotiation was for very long and hard: Vernon obviously didn't want to accept Harry ('little freak' as he called the toddler) under his wing and resisted it as much as he could, literally with salivary foam at his mouth. His skinny wife's stare travelled from her husband's face to Dumbledore's one, back and forth. The old witch too was a mere observer, not interrupting the arguing men - Albus was doing a great job without her help. Finally being completely fed up with Mr Dursley stubbornness, the Albus smoothly changed his tactics, making the fat man start hearing him, at long last.

"… you will be completely compensated at my expense. Five thousand galleons, which are an equivalent of twenty five thousand British pounds, are to be transferred to your account monthly. Not that bad, is it?"

A happy greedy glint in Vernon's eyes made both the old wizard and Minerva sick. Sometimes Albus wondered what would happen if only people like Vernon walked on this planet.

"I accept such a generous offer, but I don't want to see or hear any magic... weirdness while this... Harry lives with us."

"I will make sure it happens, don't you worry, but, I must inform you in advance that I will see him regularly on every weekend, and, eventually, I **will **teach him Magic, although I promise that we won't disturb you in any way." Albus explained. "Is that acceptable?"

Even the stupidest of people would understand that this was not a question, and that Vernon's opinion didn't matter as much as the fat man would like it to. Still, the Dursley patriarch wasn't stupid – twenty five thousands BP is not a sum you find on the floor under the master bed in your house.

"Deal." He finally answered.

They sealed it by a firm handshake. Vernon was surprised at how strong the old man's grip was. It made his right hand's bones tremble, for God's sake!

* * *

><p>A little black-haired bullet shot towards the old man, hugging him around the knees in the next moment.<p>

"Uncle Albus, it's you!" the seven year old ball of positive energy cried in delight. Dumbledore chuckled at the child's antics.

"Well hello there, Harry. You are a big boy now, are you not?" he said, looking down at him.

"Yes, now I'm big enough to start practising spells!" the boy shouted excitedly. "Will you show me, as you promised?"

"Indeed, my boy. Did you learn the theory behind the Levitation spell?" Albus asked in a fake strict tone.

"Yes. The incantation is 'Wingardium Leviosa' and the wand movements are..." and that was the way the time had been passing for the following four years.

Every weekend Albus would come to Dursley's house and teach Harry magic, theory and practise, for the whole day. The little boy tried spells with Albus' wand which fascinated him a lot – his uncle said the white wooden stick wasn't ordinary - it was a legendary masterpiece, but he never told him the name of it or its history, promising to reveal this secret when Harry would be older, much older. Potter was also taught potions, arithmancy, and ancient runes. And sometimes the old man told Harry the stories about his parents and their friends, cutting out everything not suitable for small children: betrayal, death and a certain large-nosed man with black and greasy hair.

As Albus loved to say - 'For the Greater Good.'

By the time the boy turned 11, he learned all Hogwarts' first three years program and, because of Dumbledore being his role model, he was precociously mature for such an age. On the 31st of July Harry received his Letter of Acceptance in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. And new spectacles, which were charmed to always fit him ideally, as a gift from Dumbledore.

The old man personally accompanied him to the Diagon Alley for his school supplies shopping on the last day of August.

The day Harry explored the World of Magic for the first time left a mark in the boy's memory forever.

They entered the Leaky Cauldron by the Floo, a truly useful way of transporting between any two different fireplaces (that were connected to the Floo Network, of course) wizards had, which was generously provided by Miss Figg. When the guests of the old pub had seen great Albus Wolfric Brian Dumbledore, gracefully stepping out from a fireplace, and The-Boy-Who-Lived, being spat by it a moment later, they were utterly stunned. Just for a first few seconds, of course.

Then the madness of greetings and handshakes began. Harry, being warned beforehand by Dumbledore about the mind-boggling fame he had, wasn't gaping like a fish - he smiled charmingly to everyone who approached him, greeted them and asked how things went in their life then politely excusing himself by telling that he and his uncle had a lot of important things to do - Harry internally was rolling his eyes, a bit shocked that people ate such nonsense without salt and pepper, enjoying it as much as some delicacy from some posh 5-star restaurant.

Once Albus and Harry both had a true "light" English breakfast - fried eggs and tomatoes, sausages, bacon and toasts, accompanied by a few cups of strong tea, they proceeded to the Alley. Just like any other magical alley in the Wizarding world, Diagon was... crowded and big and... magical. Harry was so happy to see it all with his own eyes! Little, and not so little, colourful explosions, a wide range of smells, exclamations, greetings, cries of magic creatures and even Gobbledegook assaulted the senses of the excited green-eyed boy.

"So, Harry, what do you want to do first?" Dumbledore asked him with his trademark twinkling eyes.

* * *

><p>Draco wasn't an ordinary eleven years old boy. He was pale, but not sickly, quite tall for his age, being 4 feet 11 inches, with a face of true heir of a Noble family - Malfoy family, hmph.<p>

He was shopping for his first year at Hogwarts, more precisely, he was buying his first school uniform at Madam Malkin's at the moment. He snobbishly looked around the shop - why didn't his parents just ordered this old woman to take measures of him at their home?

His cold expressionless mask was completely shattered, like a fragile thin glass, when he saw his soon-to-be headmaster and a black haired, glasses wearing boy. One glance at the boy's forehead was enough for the scion of Malfoy family to recognize him.

"Headmaster", he nodded to Dumbledore, who replied with a grandfatherly smile, "It's a great pleasure to see you here. I was wondering what you were doing here, in the Diagon, until I saw who you are accompanying."

He turned to Harry. "Hello, my name is Draco, Draco Malfoy. And you must be Harry Potter."

"Nice to meet you, Draco." Harry replied with a friendly smile.

A kind looking middle-aged woman appeared from the thin air, smiling brightly.

"My dear, your uniform is complete. Would you like something else?" she asked. Draco's face twitched almost imperseptibly.

"No, madam Malkin. That is all I need from your great establishment for now." blond boy answered and took his package. " 'till the next time we meet, Harry"

"Bye" Potter waved to him.

After getting Harry's school supplies, they went to the Eeylops Owl Emporium. Harry bought a majestic snowy white owl that he named Hedwig after a long discussion with his uncle.

"That is the most beautiful name for the most beautiful owl, my boy" Albus commented, smiling.

"Thank you, uncle Albus" Harry replied, gently stroking Hedwig's feathers. The bird hooted and gently nipped his right index finger.

The last stop of the odd pair was the Ollivander's. It was an ancient looking shop with a sign on the front which told that Ollivander family had been wandcrafters since 382 B.C. , and Harry was feeling creepy by an atmosphere inside of it – a poor lighting revealed piles upon piles of dusty rectangular boxes with, obviously, wands inside everywhere from high wooden shelves to the floor under his feet.

"Ahh... Albus Dumbledore... A lot of time passed since you entered my shop, did it not?" the old man in his early seventies said. He had the most piercing gaze that saw right through a person he chose to turn it to.

"Yes, it did, Garrick. When was it? Ah... in 1892. I was such a troublemaker back then" Dumbledore replied jovially, then added jokingly. "You were a bit younger, also"

The wandmaker smiled, nodding his head, and turned his entrancing gaze towards Harry.

"Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, I am honoured to finally meet you in person. You truly resemble your great parents. It was a challenge to find a suitable wand for them, but I'm sure you won't be any easier. Let's see..."

After a magical tape had taken the boy's measures on itself, Garrick started rummaging through the aforementioned piles, muttering something silently to himself.

"No, too flexible.. this one's too temperamental.. too long for him.."

He finally picked one black wand and gave it to Harry for a try.

"Ebony wood, thirteen inches with a unicorn hair."

When the wand started to produce a black cloud of smoke from its tip, he immediately snatched it from Harry's hands, shaking his head.

"No... What about..."

For the next four hours, which Harry thought were a little eternity, Ollivander had been searching for the right wand. With every wrong one, he got more and more excited thus proving to Harry once more that the magic folk indeed was weird.

Ollivander carefully gave him another wand, looking at the boy strangely.

Once the boy waved it in his hand, its tip lit with a fountain of little red sparks, sending warmness throughout his young body.

"Fascinating, Harry Potter. Holly, 11 inches, with a phoenix feather" the wand maker said, turning his gaze to Dumbledore, whose eyes lit in surprise. "This one is very special."

"But what's so great about it, sir?" Harry asked.

"This particular phoenix gave only **two **feathers from its tail. One is inside this wand. The wand with the other I gave to a little boy, who was very ambitious and smart. The man he'd become is known today around the whole Wizarding World as You-Know-Who. I expect great things to come from you, young man – the Dark Lord may be a terrible man, but great nevertheless." Ollivander half-whispered, his pale silver eyes entrancing Harry.

They left the shop and its gloomy atmosphere and Dumbledore put his hand on the boy's shoulder, assuring him that everything was well.

"You shouldn't worry, Harry. I believe that you will be the greatest Wizard ever in our world. Trust me"

"Do you really think so, uncle?" Harry asked the old man, proving to him once again that the boy was still a child.

Albus nodded to him, smiling warmly.

"Now, my boy, I think we both need the best remedy against the bad mood that humankind ever created."

Harry looked up at him

"What is it, uncle Albus?"

"This, young man, is, of course, dessert, or, if you prefer a more detailed description – an ice cream. Come, Florean Fortesque's is right behind that corner." the old wizard said, taking Harry's hand in his own.

**AN4 and the last for this chapter, really.. (19.02.2012): Friends, Romans, Citizens=)) - I've tweaked the chapter a bit. Well not just by a bit..). I've noticed that chapter 2 is like a delta, you know - tomorrow I'll fix that too and the whole prologue.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two: Speaking Hats, Annoying Brats_

There is one axiom, which reads 'Harry James Potter hates apparating'.

After being squeezed through a tiny rubber pipe, chewed in some huge jaws and finally spat on the floor, he was feeling dizzy for a few seconds. But soon his perception returned to him from its short vacation.

"I see you enjoy apparating a lot, my boy" Dumbledore said with his eyes full of mirth. "I remember the time when I had my first side-along apparation - I lost my breakfast, spilling it right onto my instructor's robes.."

"Yes, uncle Albus. I do understand now why you have told me it's better to take bus or underground."

They started walking to their destination.

King's Cross station was crowded with... crowds of people. The little boy had never seen so many people before. Finally after navigating through the sea of people for ten minutes they had seen it - the Barrier. It was a simple brick pillar like all others between the platform 9 and 10. Yet the fact that some strangely dressed people were _entering _it without anyone noticing them was literally crying out 'Here you'll find magic, son!'.

Once they had passed trough The Barrier, Harry saw a very interesting picture: lots of magical folk mixed up a little with some muggles here and there. And all of them were crying, hugging, shouting, patting each other's backs and shoulders, handshaking, like that was the last chance to do it.

"So... Harry, until the evening and the Sorting!" Dumbledore said.

"But uncle, you promised me to tell about what's going to happen on the sorting!"

Albus smiled at Harry, "Harry, my boy, of course, if I promised I'm surely going to tell you everything I know about it..." He pulled out a golden pocket watch, checking the time. "Whoops! I think I forgot something! I really must go right now! Bon voyage!" the old wizard said, waving, and apparated away from the platform.

Harry pouted for a few seconds.

A little bit more of pouting...

Just one second more..

He started walking to the train – brightly red and _old_, 'Hogwarts Express' written in huge golden letters on its engine's side_._

It was just as crowded with young people inside as the platform outside was. Once people recognised him, they abruptly stopped what they were doing and stared at him, whispering behind his back and pointing at his direction. It made him a little bit angry so the boy shouldered his way to the first empty compartment he found, sending looks which promised pain to everyone who tried to sound his or her displeasure with his rude behaviour.

* * *

><p>Time. It always passed quickly and today wasn't an exception, so Harry didn't even noticed at first that the train began moving. A sound of working engine and iron wheels tuck-tucking were making him sleepy.. Yes.. sleeping wasn't such a bad idea..<p>

There was a polite knocking at the compartment door - it shooed sleepiness away from Harry's mind in an instant.

"Yes?" Harry asked.

The door opened, revealing a tall boy with orange hair, he looked funny with placers of freckles on his face, and his blue eyes had a kind light in them. Here an example of a simple nice guy was standing.

"Excuse me, do you mind sharing the compartment with me? My older brothers kicked me out of mine and I don't feel like being in a crowded one any more." he asked.

"Of course, feel like at home, my friend" Harry replied, looking up from his fourth year charms text and gesturing to the opposite bench.

"I'm Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley. This is my first year in Hogwarts."

He was very tall, ridiculously so for his eleven years, around 5 feet 7 inches. Yep, ridiculously tall and wide in shoulders. Harry wondered how high this guy would be after a few years.

Ron's pale blue eyes looked at Harry warmly "... and you are?"

"Harry Potter." The-Boy-Who-Smiled-Friendly said.

Ron's eyes were wide like saucers. "_The _Harry Potter! It's such great honour to..."

"Stop it, Ron, please. I think it's so stupid of people to deify me for something I did when I was a toddler, not knowing for sure if **I **did it."

"Well, you do have a point, mate" Ron said with a wide smile "Well, Mr I Despise My Famousness, which house do you think you'll be sorted in?" he asked "Actually don't tell me, I'm sure we'll both end up in Gryffindor House." the redhead stated with devious smile.

"Why are you so sure?" Harry asked him sceptically.

"Just think about it. You are the one who kicked the bony ass of You-Know-Who." he started counting points he made by un-tucking his fingers,

"He was in Slytherin." two "Slytherin's opposite is Gryffindor." three "And you seem to be a great guy." four

"As for me - it's just the fact that all my older brothers ended up there."

"Hah, you have an iron logic, Ron, but you should remember that iron, while very tough, rusts fast." Harry said. "Never be so sure, who know you may as well end up in..."

Their conversation was unceremoniously interrupted by an appearance of a very bossy looking brown haired girl who stood by the entrance with her hands crossed on her chest. A podgy boy stood behind her, shyly looking at his feet.

"Have you seen Neville's frog here?" She asked them directly.

"My dear, there is only one particular frog I've seen and it just happens to be you." Ron said with a fake smile. Well, maybe he wasn't so simple..

"Wow wow! Cool down, Ron. Don't turn into an ass because of somebody who is the one already." Harry said holding up his hands. "Just go away, and return only when you become more friendly" He added to the girl.

"I hate it when people interrupt. But you are right – there is no need to start a conflict because of such nonsense."

Ron turned his head to the now angry girl, who evidently disliked to be a subject of somebody's discussion in the third person especially.

"Do you need my help going out of our compartment? Or maybe you don't understand polite language?" With that he bumped her out and wanted to do the same with the boy that accompanied her, but he helped himself already, then shut the door close with 'Ciao!'.

"Short tempered, huh?" Harry asked.

"My dear friend, to be short-tempered you need to posses the temper, and I don't." Ron answered in a fake lecturing tone.

They had been playing magical chess for two hours already, when the compartment door opened again.

"So, we meet again, Harry" blond boy stated pompously. Behind him were two gorilla-like boys.

"Draco, it's nice to finally see you again! And who are these two charming guys behind you?" Ron actually laughed when Harry said the last part.

The blond lost his snobbish mask, rolling his eyes.

"The cuter one on the left from me is Crabbe, the smarter one on my right is Goyle. You don't need to introduce your friend here - we happen to know each other for quite some time - our parents really like each other, on Saturdays we, Malfoys, invite them on team, on Sundays, they, Weasleys, call us to dinner! Hello, Ronald."

Draco nodded to Ron, who nodded back.

"May I and my... friends sit with you?"

"Of course." Harry answered.

The first few uncomfortable minutes had passed and they finally started to adapt to each other. They spoke about the latest news of the wizarding world, weather, their thoughts about what awaited them in Hogwarts and so on and so on. **They** as Draco, Harry, Ron, of course. Even little children know that gorillas don't speak. They were being so deep in conversation when the express had arrived they didn't notice it until the last moment when some booming voice began calling out for all the students to leave the train and step onto the platform.

It was cold outside. Cold and wet. Brrrr. Dark too. It was nothing like the night of October 31st, 1981, for sure.

Ron had stopped suddenly, making the whole freshly baked trio stand still.

"Where are the Cutest and the Smartest?" He asked Draco, who in fact wasn't worried about two large boys at all.

"Who cares, Ronald?" Malfoy looked at him incredulously. "The longer these two primates are far away from me the better."

"First years! First years! Come here!" an enormous man with a long and bushy beard shouted, towering above the sea of newcomers like a lone mountain.

"Do you think he is a half-giant or something like that?" Ron asked, measuring the man with his pale blue eyes.

"Dunno, but he is **tall**." Draco answered, shaking because of the coldness.

"C'mon guys. I want to be in some warmer place. The faster the better." Harry said, while moving to the big guy.

"Oh hello there, Harry. Hagrid's my name. How are you?" the tallest man Potter ever saw said with a smile, which was returned back by Harry.

"Hi, Hagrid. I'm well, as you can see, just a little bit cold." he said amiably.

"Merlin, you are so much bigger than the last time I saw you – then you were just a cute little toddler!" Hagrid said with hint of tears in his small black eyes.

After their little chat, all four moved towards the lake with the rest of the first years.

"Now, enter the boats by four and we go!" shouted the half-giant.

The trio occupied one boat with a stunning black haired girl. Harry gave her a friendly smile and offered his right hand politely for a shake.

"Hi there! Harry Potter. And you are?" he began.

"Somebody who will make you shut up, if you don't close your bread cutter on your own." the girl answered.

Harry was gobsmacked. Ron was howling with laugher, while Draco just smiled a little and whispered to Harry's ear.

"Daphne Greengrass. As you can see, she is as much beautiful as she is straightforward and rude."

"Yeah, lovely she is... and quite a bit... I mean, blunt", Harry whispered back.

She was very tall girl for her age - 5 feet 1 inch, to be precise. Harry suddenly felt short, being 4 feet 7 inches himself - her long, obsidian black hair, azure eyes and elegant, if just a little bit sharp, facial features made him sure of who he was going to dream about during the long winter nights.

A sight before them stunned everyone: a huge castle with thousands of brightly illuminating windows, its turrets so high they were cutting the dark skies above with their pointy caps... but its massive structure didn't press on you like skyscrapers in some muggle megapolis, no it actually had some aura of friendliness and home.

When they docked with water-side and abandoned their boats, they were met by a stern-looking, grey-haired woman, who studied them all with a stare of her dark green eyes.

"Good evening. I'm professor McGonagall, the deputy headmistress, the head of Gryffindor house and your soon-to-be transfiguration teacher. Now. Come with me."

They followed her.

"There are four Houses in Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Whatever House you'll end up in will be your new big family for you time here."

"For every academic success and good deed, you will be rewarded with House Points. For every unacceptable thing you do, be it walking after the curfew, behaving rudely with a teacher or any other kind of rule breaking, you'll serve a detention, your house points will be taken or both."

"The House with the greatest number of points in the end of every academic year will earn the House Cup – a great honour. I sincerely hope that every one of you will be a great addition to whatever house you'll end up in"

They stopped near the large doors, which obviously led to some huge room.

"Now wait here, until I come back for you" she said and went inside.

"What do you think the Sorting is like? I, personally, am sure that it's going to be a test of knowledge. A quiz, or a practical test.. By the way I'm Hermione. Hermione Granger" bushy haired bossy girl back from the train said in an annoyingly fast way.

And she didn't need to wait even a second before Daphne 'sated' Hermione's thirst for knowledge with a reply

"I am **not** sure what the 'Sorting' " here she made the air quotes " is going to be like and, honestly, I don't care. But I **am** sure that if you don't close your annoying mouth, you will never see this event – instead you'll be growing your new tongue in the medical ward, after I cut the old one, which apparently is too long."

"She is so cute" Harry said to Draco and Ron.

"Uh-uh. Cute. Of course my horse - she is as cute as Hungarian Horntail is.", the latter answered for both.

Malfoy shook his head, chuckling lightly

"Only you could say such a silly thing, Ronald".

There were terrified screams and the trio turned back. They saw a pair of spectral men lazily floating trough the air to them.

"Hi there, youngsters! I'm Nearly Headless Nick, and this one here is my fellow ghost – Fat Friar." the ghost of the man said, pointing at his spectral fellow. He pulled his own head by hair from his neck, well, almost, proving them that he was, indeed, _nearly _headless, a piece of skin still connecting his head and neck.

"Nice to meet you, sir. I'm Harry Potter and these are my friends - Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley." Harry said.

Their conversation was cut short by returned McGonagall.

"Move along now. The Sorting is about to begin".

There were "ohh's" and "ahhh's" from all of them when they entered. And those two expressions were the best to describe all the magnificence of the Great Hall: ceiling imitating night sky and hundreds of lit candles that illuminated the room with their warmness created the most magical picture. The most magical picture that, alas, one day would loose all its 'magicness' for them.

A three legged stool was put in the centre of the hall with an ancient and dirty looking hat placed on top of it. Then two large punctures appeared on the hat, imitating eyes and a horizontal rip near the brim, apparently imitating the mouth, and it started to sing the Welcome Song.

_'You heard this song so many times_

_And skip it anyway._

_If you do not, then you're fool -_

_There's nothing else to say!_

_Oh wait! There is!_

_You'll find plot twist_

_In chapter or in two._

_Come on, my friends,_

_You still read this?_

_'s there nothing else to do?_

_OK, you won, so I've begun_

_The writing once again._

_This rhyme was shit,_

_So I smoked weed_

_To make remake for you!'_

There was a huge wave of ovations, which the hat acknowledged by bowing a little its pointy end to each table in the Hall. After that McGonagall took the list with names and started to call out the first years by names in an alphabetical order then they approached the stool, sat on it, put on the hat, it mumbled something to them and shouted out the house name. A very simple process - so much for the conspiration, eh?

"Abbot, Hannah" "Hufflepuff!"

"Granger, Hermione" "Gryffindor!"

"Greengrass, Daphne" "Slytherin!"

"Malfoy, Draco!"

The blond boy's hair hadn't even brushed the Sorting Hat, when it instantly shouted

"Slytherin!"

"Potter, Harry!"

There was a sudden silence. Harry could hear that somebody dropped a fork on the floor. He looked at his uncle who smiled encouragingly, giving him a subtle wink. Slowly he went to the stool, sat and put the hat on. He heard a quiet voice reverberating in his head

_"Harry Potter... It's nice to meet you finally... You are as much noble as you are fearless - Gryffindor would be proud to have you in his House. But, ooh.. You also are so much ambitious - you want to be the greatest wizard ever, huh?"_

_"How do you know it?"_

_"You can't keep any secret that's inside of your mind, Harry Potter."_

_"Then finish it already."_

_"You are so impatient, Harry - you would be a great lion... but the path to greatness lies for you only in_ SLYTHERIN!"

The last word was cried out loud. All of the students and professors had shocked expressions. Ron's jaw was literally on the floor. Albus looked a bit worried though for a split second. His employee, and, simultaneously the head of the Slytherin House, seemed to be 'lightningstruck'(1), although he, himself, would never use such a metaphor, for quite an apparent reason placed on the green eyed boy's forehead.

Then all the students which occupied the table with green hanging, on which snake was drawn, above it burst in ovations, Draco being the most enthusiastic one.

Ok, all, but one particular witch with jet black hair. She was wearing an annoyed scowl at this moment, which made her even more cute in eyes of our hero.

Harry sat next to Malfoy, who loudly congratulated him.

"Harry, congratulations and welcome to our little family!"

"Thanks" Harry said and smiled to Daphne, giving her a wink - her scowl became even more definite.

He looked at Dumbledore, who was in deep thoughts. The boy wondered what disturbed his uncle so much. But surprises didn't stop there. A few more students were sorted before the Rubicon was reached:

"Weasley, Ronald!"

Ron put the hat on nervously.

_"Oh my! Such a loyal friend you are, my dear, you'll do great in Helga's domain, you know?"_ whispered hat in his head.

"NO! Not Hufflepuff! Please!" The tall redhead actually cried it out loud and in such miserably pathetic tone that he triggered a chain reaction.

Everybody, but the students of one house in black and yellow and, of course, professors, was laughing.

_"I'm just joking, boy. Of course not. You are courageous and proud, maybe Gryffindor will be your new family? But no, what is it? You want to be with your new friends. The only right choice is... SLYTHERIN!"_

_"Argh! Why did you shout in my head?"_

_"Heh it's such a joy to annoy you, young Ronald._ SLYTHERIN!"

This time the hat cried the last word not "inside", but "outside", still the Hat made it sound so high-pitched that it cut everybody's eardrums, especially Ron's.

When the "S" word came out of the Sorting Hat's mouth, his brothers had stopped everything they were doing before and stared disbelievingly at him.

Ron went straight to the Slytherin table, not looking back, and sat between Harry and Draco.

"Quite a spectacle you made, Ronald" the blond said.

"What can I say? I must have been born an actor" the redhead replied.

"Comedian you mean?" joked Harry.

"Screw you, scar-head. You have four eyes and no conscience in even one of them!" Weasley said, punching Potter's right shoulder in a friendly way. Still it made Harry feel _pain._

_**1) Yeah, I know it's thunderstruck, but lightningstruck fits the situation so much more! **_

**AN(19.02.2012): Changed the chapter a bit, hope you find it more appealing now.**

**Thank you for your reviews, ladies and gentlemen, negative and positive. **


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Three: Welcome!_

Dumbledore stood up, spreading his hands widely, and gave the welcoming speech after the Sorting finished.

"Welcome!" he said.

"Welcome to a new year at the Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"

The various kinds of food appeared on the table. All inhabitants of the great hall started to fill up their plates with food. When Harry witnessed the edible mountain on Ron's plate he wondered where it all goes.

"By the look on your face, Harry, I'm sure you were wondering where this all enormous pile of food on Ronald's plate goes. I think, you don't need to worry – just look how huge our "growing" child is, obviously it goes _down_." Draco said.

"Uh-uh.", Harry agreed dumbly.

After everyone sated his or her hunger, the headmaster got on his feet again, asking for the student body's attention.

"I wanted to make a few announcements. The Forbidden Forest is, as its name suggests – forbidden, no student is allowed to go there. Our kind caretaker Mr Filch also wanted me to warn you about the consequences of rule breaking and remind you of the Prohibited Items List that you can find in his office. Also for the whole academic year the third floor corridor is closed, it is imperative that you don't step in it if you wish not to die a horrible death."

With that said, he wished everyone good night and ordered prefects to show to the first years their common rooms and dorms.

"Slytherin firsties, follow us!" a large fifth year guy with an elegant brown haired girl called out.

The little snakes complied and went after the pair towards the dungeons.

The Hogwarts catacombs spread horizontally as much as vertically – they formed a huge network of subterranean tunnels and chambers. Nobody entirely knew this place, even Dumbledore or Snape.

They stopped near the stone wall dead end.

"Pure stand supreme!"the girl prefect said and the wall's halves opened outwardly.

"Couldn't they make up something less obvious?" Harry asked his friends quietly to which they just shook their heads.

They all went inside then.

The room by itself was quite big, with low ceiling, great fireplace and sitting places by it and at the corners. The silver and green tones apparently were dominating there.

Incomers were met by a black haired wizard with piercing eyes, eyes that reminded Harry of an abyss – dark and endless. He had quite large nose and expressionless face, similar to the crude stone walls around them. He was quite tall and an aura of intimidation was radiating from him.

"Welcome. My name is Severus Snape. I'm here to congratulate all of you and tell you the three and only rules of the greatest House in Hogwarts. First one – never fight or argue with your housemates outside of the common room. I will repeat this to drill it inside of your thick skulls. Never. Fight. With. Your. Own. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir." all the first years in room chorused. Indeed, the man surely would not accept any nonsense from anyone.

"Good. The second one – don't rush in conflict with outsiders, if you are not sure about your triumph."

He looked at Ron and Harry after saying it.

"And the last but not the least – stand up for each other, even if you know that your housemate is wrong.. You can ask me for your timetables in my office on Monday, which is tomorrow. Obviously you must do it before your lessons will start. Have a good night."

Snape left and the prefects took over the speech.

"You heard the head of our House. Never forget what he tells you or I'll personally throw you out of the Astronomy tower and stomp on what's left of you! My name is Marcus Flint, the girl standing next to me is Selene Blackwood. We are the prefects of Slytherin House. If.. I mean when, you have some problems with outsiders, you come to one of us and we will help you solve them out. Now. Boys to the right, girls to the left!"

Everyone went to their respective dorms.

The first year slytherin dorms were spacious with low coarse stone ceiling and walls. The beds had green and silver lining with curtains surrounding them, and were very comfortable. By each one stood small bedside table and their trunks. There were a few wide sham windows that showed some magical landscapes. The door to the bathroom was placed on the wall to the right from the entrance.

The trio met their fellow dorm-mates there.

"Hello there. Theodore Nott. Pureblood." the brown haired boy with dim green eyes said.

"Hi. Blaise Zabini. Pureblood." a dark skinned guy repeated the ritual.

"Hello, Draco of the Noble House of Malfoy" the blond proudly said.

"Ronald Weasley. Pureblood."

"Emm... Hi. Harry Potter. The-Boy-Who-Lived to not know if he is pureblood or not?"

Everyone looked at Harry incredulously.

"Your mother was muggleborn so she was the witch in the first generation. You aren't pureblood, but you are the only heir of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter for sure. There are only a few of those still not extinct in the whole wizarding Great Britain – Blacks, Dumbledores, Bones and", here Draco snorted, "Longbottoms are the others."

"I will translate the blond ponce's words for you, Harry. Ouch! Don't poke me with your tiny little fingers, blondie! Ok, ok, stop! Foooh! .. He means that you are not only an annoying scar-head bastard, but also a ridiculously rich one from very old and powerful family." Ron said in an almost singsong way.

"Uh-uh. Powerful. Every single member of my family is dead, Ron, so not as powerful as it used to be." Harry answered sadly.

"But when you become an adult, you'll have enough money and political power to start the World War III, finance all the sides, watch them all burn and then help them to recover. After that you still will be insanely rich. Although it's not such a good idea." All the boys laughed after Draco stated it matter-of-factly.

Ok, all but Crabbe and Goyle, who looked dumbly at everyone. After having a shower, they wished good night to each other and went to their respective beds. Harry, experiencing such an eventful day, started to add his own snoring to a cacophony in the dorm.

* * *

><p>Monday morning. Probably at that right moment someone in the vast lands of Russia was going to work with Godzilla-like hangover, muttering some bad words that were quite relied to the human anatomy and cursing the whole world for its unfairness and the person who created Mondays.<p>

But back to the Hogwarts and our dear trio of extraordinary boys.

The friends woke up, made their morning routines, took their timetables from Snape and went to the breakfast.

"Oh great. Double history with 'hard-working' huffs!" they laughed at Ron's comment "And I almost thought that Monday's my favourite - then double Minnie time with her kitty-cats."

They sat behind their house table, consuming the food and chatting.

"Look, Draco, she's such a lovely girl." Harry said, staring at Daphne Greengrass.

"Potter, she's a little copy of Bellatrix Lestrange and my auntie used to be dangerous like hell before she was thrown in Azkaban. So if you don't like to torture little furry kittens and puppies, you are the person of no interest for this 'lovely' girl", Malfoy replied.

Ron continued Draco's train of thought.

"Such a shame... Your children would be so cute, being short-sighted rude little dunderheads..."

"You. Four-eyed brat. Stop staring at me like this or I'll break your showcase, take the largest shard of it and cut your little balls off with it!" the aforementioned girl threatened.

"Tsk-tsk! Why so violent, Daph-daph? If you wanted to see me without pants, you could just ask." Harry joked.

Daphne was silent for a second, and then she retorted, pulling out her wand

"Just who do you think you are, Potter? I'm..."

Snape appeared behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders

"While I'm so _proud_ to see that you haven't forgotten my speech about inter-house fighting yesterday, Miss Greengrass, I must interrupt you and give you a warning. If I see such a comedy again, you will be scrubbing all the cauldrons in my classrooms for the whole semester. After that I'll send you to the Brighton's Academy of Magical Comedians and Tragedians. Did I explain your _very _possible future in an understandable enough way?"

"...yes, professor", she answered, looking down on her empty plate.

"Good... Potter!" "Yes, sir?" Harry almost saluted him, but stopped, knowing that Severus doesn't have a good sense of humour.

"Headmaster Dumbledore wants to see you after breakfast in his office."

"I'll be there right away, sir."

* * *

><p>Harry approached a stone gargoyle which was blocking the path to the Dumbledore office. Suddenly, it jumped out of his way. He watched it for a second then moved further towards the door and just before he knocked he heard his uncle's voice<p>

"Come in, Harry"

He entered the large circular room with a big table at the centre, which had headmaster sitting behind it. Lots of weird silvery tools were on it, clicking, shaking, scratching and belling. A majestic phoenix sat on a golden perch.

When Harry sat on the chair on the opposite of headmaster's one, the bird flew and positioned itself on his shoulder, trilling happily a short cheering melody.

"Hi, uncle Albus. Professor Snape told me you wished to see me.", Harry greeted the old wizard.

"Yes, my boy. I see my familiar is quite fond of you - you must have a pure heart.. But we have a lot to discuss. How are your housemates?"

"They're fine, I guess. Ron and Draco are becoming quite close friends of mine with a lightning speed." Harry answered.

"It's making me happy knowing that you found friends so fast, Harry. Do you wish to continue our lessons, my boy?"

"Yes, uncle, of course I do!"

Dumbledore chuckled at his answer

"Just as I imagined. From now on, every weekday at 8 pm straight we will have ahh... the extracurricular lessons"

"That's awesome, uncle."

"Also I wanted to tell you that I asked Severus to teach you Occlumency – the magical art of mind defence."

"But why, uncle?"

"I will tell you only after you are adept in it, my boy. The information I'm going to unveil to you is not for everyone's ears, but let us not discuss such serious things so much. I see that you are quite attracted to young Miss Greengrass, Harry."

The-Boy-Who-Blushed turned his face down

"Emmm... Although she has the sharpest tongue in all the Hogwarts she is just so... sheen... and... I'm sure behind all this harsh behaviour there is something... utterly beautiful."

"Yes, Harry, I agree with you, but be aware that she comes from a very dark family and surely knows more offensive spells than any other student of first through fourth years, especially, _not so light ones_."

"I understand, uncle. I'll be extremely careful with her from now on." Harry answered.

"Good. My favourite candy for the current month just happens to be a muggle one. 'Kinder Surprise', to be precise. So, off you go! Shoo!" Dumbledore dismissed Harry playfully.

"See you, uncle Albus."

Harry left the headmaster's office and went to his first lesson, knowing that his two friends would wait for him in the common room.

* * *

><p>"Harry, I thought you would never come back. What took you so long?" the first Weasley slytherin in the Wizarding world asked.<p>

"Don't you get it, Weasley? Our Mr Four Eyes is Dumbledore's protégé. I'm sure they were discussing Harry's education and actions." Draco said, annoyed by his sometimes too slow-witted redhead buddy.

"Is that true, Harry? You really are Dumbledore's pupil!"

"Dumbledore is the uncle I never had. He looks after me my whole life and teaches me magic since I turned seven."

"You are very lucky bastard then, Potter", Ron said with a smile, "Would you mind teaching us, mere earth-crawlers, what you've learnt?"

"Ok, but we need to find some place that fits our needs." Harry agreed.

Ron became excited

"I'll ask my brothers, they know that kind of places in the Hogwarts for sure."

"It's 8 am already. Lessons will start in fifteen minutes." Draco reminded them "Let's go"

There is another axiom: 'No one can endure a history lesson taught by professor Binns', who happened to be a ghost. He droned some kind of goblin-related nonsense, while everyone in the classroom was fighting off the urge to sleep.

Harry looked at Ron, then Draco, both were sleeping like babies, snoring.

"Oh well..." he thought

"Good dreams, everyone!" he said out loud, and fell asleep.

Transfiguration was absolutely opposite. After showing everyone how good it is to be an expert transfiguration user by turning into a cat and back and, then, turning her own table into a pig and reverting it, professor McGonagall made them learn the basics of this kind of magic

"Transfiguration is the science of changing matter's natural characteristics magically. Intent, imagination, channelling. Remember these three words." she lectured "Today we are going to change a simple match to a needle."

Little piles of matches appeared in front of every student on their tables

"Begin."

Albus Dumbledore wasn't a transfiguration teacher for half of the 20th century for nothing – he taught Harry this trick when the boy was seven years old. When Minerva saw the son of her two favourite students turning the match after match into needles, she felt a bang of pride in her chest.

"Twenty points to Slytherin, Mr Potter, for this extraordinary feat. Now, please help your fellow students."

"Yes, professor. Thank you."

Harry helped Draco and Ron then. The former did it only in the middle of the second lesson. The latter did it after trying for about twenty times, which was a very impressive achievement.

Stern witch rewarded them with 5 and 10 points respectively. But they were taken back, because of Daphne's outrage: after trying to transform the match like a hundred times and failing, she burnt all her pile with a single "Incendio".

By the end of the lesson, only Hermione was the one who accomplished it too.

* * *

><p>Harry, feeling his stomach being pleasurably full after dinner, went to the headmaster's office.<p>

He chuckled and said the password, "Kinder Surprise".

The stone creature let him pass after that.

"Enter, my boy" he heard Albus saying.

"Good evening, uncle."

"Indeed, Harry, this evening is very delightful. How are things going on your personal front?" Dumbledore asked with twinkle in his eyes and kind smile.

"No progress there at all - she's as annoyed with me as ever."

"Oh, Harry, I think that young Miss Greengrass just shows her affection for you this way. But let us proceed with our lesson. Today, my boy I want to teach you the spell contingency. It lets you cast a few spells at once, and that's extremely useful. It doesn't have incantation, just the wand movement, which is a little bit tricky, because it's not constant."

Albus moved his wand in a very complex pattern – he made a wand movement of "Tarrantallegra", moved his wand a little bit to the right from the starting point, made pattern of flaming charm, moved the white bony wand down and to the left, did blasting hex movement, then finished by moving it (wand) to the start.

The triangular symbol glowed blue with red at corner points in the air.

"Ariana", Dumbledore said seriously

"This word, spoken by me again, will release all three spells at once on anyone or anything at my wand's point. Look."

He conjured an animated wooden training dummy which started approaching him.

Albus pointed his wand at it and stated "Ariana!"

The construct was blasted out of the window, while being set on fire with its legs dancing on their own. Harry was awed by the spectacular show of magic.

"Reparo."

The window became as it was before being hit with the dummy.

"The number of spells you can use in your spell contingency depends on you magical power, imagination and the spells you try to put in it. Don't try to put one hundred spells at once, because A – it's takes eternity to make a hundred spell contingency, B – you cast it and die of magical exhaustion. After you prepared it, you can release it only once, then you must create it again. Also it's not time dependant – you may create one and keep it for week or month or however long you like before releasing it. So choose wisely, Harry. And _always _have one prepared in advance."

Dumbledore finished his small lecture and conjured another dummy that stood still.

Harry created a simple Blasting-Cutting-Paralyzing contingency with "Cutie" tied to it.

When he released it, the dummy was thrown back, hitting the stone wall, which Albus conjured expertly before the window, totally immobilized and headless.

"Perfect, my boy. That's all for today. Have a good night."

"Good night for you too, uncle, and thanks. What you taught me today is very helpful."

* * *

><p>It was Tuesday morning, when Severus Snape entered the classroom and started his lesson deep in the Hogwarts dungeons.<p>

"As the better quarter of our great school already knows, my name is Severus Snape. I will teach you the precise science of Alchemy. I won't tolerate any stupid wand poking and swishing in my classroom, so put your sticks back in your bags."

He checked the class' attendance quickly.

"Today you will attempt to brew a cure boils potion. I'll break you in pairs."

He made just that, putting Draco with Ron, Hermione with Neville and Harry with Daphne.

"Instructions are on the desk. Begin." He sat behind his table, while indeed instructions appeared on the board.

"Hi, dear", Harry greeted his object of passion jovially.

"Don't you "hidear" me, scar-head.", Daphne retorted.

"Why are you so rude with me?" the boy asked in a fake miserable tone.

"Because you are an insufferable dunderhead, Potter." she replied, looking annoyed towards him.

"I'll take it as a compliment, honey-dear!"

"Do whatever you want, I don't care"

"See! You actually can make sentences without a single insult in it!"

If Daphne's gaze could petrify, Harry would be a nice statue already.

"Look. We have this stupid potion to make. And, while we do it, I don't want to hear any word from you."

He nodded in agreement.

They started brewing. Not a single word left their mouths, then a casus happened.

About half an hour after they began, their cauldron exploded in the most fiery range of colours Harry ever saw.

**BAAAH**!

The grey-brown-magenta liquid covered them both and every bystander. Eww..

"Potter! Why didn't you warn me it was the wrong ingredient, idiot?"

"_You_told me to remain silent and I just did as you asked!" Harry answered grinning madly.

Snape's voice boomed in the classroom.

"Potter! Greengrass! I will see both of you in my office in the evening today, now GET OUT!"

The potion master looked like he wanted nothing more than strangle them both – as slowly and painfully as possible. They left the classroom _fast_.

* * *

><p>Daphne took Harry by hand roughly and dragged the protesting boy to the nearest abandoned classroom.<p>

When they entered, she cast silencing and locking charms on the door and punched him in the gut.

"Ooof."

"Idiot" She kicked his left leg on the inner side, unbalancing him, and he fell

"Stop it!"

"Yes, scar-head, beg me to stop it now, like your mudblood mother begged the Dark Lord before he killed her." She kicked his gut a few times.

Suddenly, he caught her leg by hand and pushed it back, making her fall.

"Poor choice of words, _sweetheart_." Harry said, pointing his wand at her, releasing Incarcero-Expelliarmus contingency.

He stood up, catching her wand simultaneously, and cleaned himself with a swish of wand.

"I won't let anybody speak about my parents in such way."

Daphne, disarmed and incarcerated, didn't look regretful at all. She rolled her eyes in annoyance, secretly wondering what the heck Potter just did.

"What will you do to me? Is the Golden Boy going to torture me with a _tickling charm_?"

Harry smiled at her and replied

"Nah. There is much better way, you know. I'm going to speak with your daddy, Daph-daph, tell him what a bad girl you are."

Cruel face of her father, who thought only about his social standing, appeared in her mind. If Harry did it, she was so dead.

"Just imagine me, The-Boy-Who-Lived, and", here he pointed up his finger, "the protégé of the great Albus Dumbledore, telling your father how you were insulting me in public, and _hit _me, acting like some _muggle filth_ not the future Lady Greengrass. Then I will do an interview with The Prophet and, ta-da, you are _so screwed._"

Her face lost its entire colour in an instance.

"N-no, Harry, please don't do it. Don't tell my father! He will dispose of me!" she begged "I'm so sorry, Harry. I won't be rude with you or your friends anymore, I promise!"

"See! You can apologize! Good girl." Harry stroked her hair.

"Finite" She was released. He threw her wand back and went out the room without a word, leaving silent Greengrass behind.

* * *

><p>Charms went without any incident. Little jovial charms professor was excited when Harry levitated feather with "Wingardium Leviosa" on first attempt and gave him 20 points.<p>

Young black haired witch who he confronted just a while ago gave him a few odd looks during the lesson here and there.

"What happened with her, Harry? After you were thrown out together from class by Snape, she is not quite herself." Draco asked.

"We had a... _conversation_" Potter answered. Blond boy smiled, completely understanding what that meant.

* * *

><p>Harry went to Snape's office, after telling his uncle that he couldn't attend their meeting. The girl to whom he was attracted just a few hours before was there already. She didn't look at him, staring down on the floor instead.<p>

When they entered the office, Snape was standing near the window, looking outside at the school grounds.

"You showered our House with shame. What did I tell you on the day of your arrival? Are you not smart enough to understand that everyone outside the Slytherin hates us already? We can't afford fighting with each other. Now, Mr Potter, I know that it **almost** entirely Ms Greengrass' fault. But you are still my snakes and I won't punish you. _This_ time. Now, go away and think about what I told you."

They left.

* * *

><p>Daphne Greengrass sat on her dorm bed with closed curtains and privacy charm around it. She was cruel, merciless <em>bitch, <em>especially for an eleven year old,but still a girl. Her thoughts were on some different than usual plane that day. She thought about the encounter in the abandoned classroom. When Potter made her feel weak, made her beg him so... easily, something clicked in her. She wanted to be dominated completely by him again badly.

"Harry..." she said softly.

She slept, dreaming about the young green eyed wizard that fascinated her so much.

* * *

><p>Saturday at 9 pm found Harry being taught Occlumency by Snape.<p>

"As Albus told you already, it is imperative that you know how to protect your mind from attacks. Now clear your mind."

"Legilimens" the man cast at Harry's forehead.

"Harry saw all his life – Dursleys, uncle Albus, his lessons, Ron, Draco, Daphne, the Hogwarts..

"Potter, **clear** your mind and try to push me back.

"Legilimens"

Hogwarts... his encounter with Daphne started to show up when Harry shut Snape's attack down.

"Good. You surprised me. Maybe you do have some potential to become our new hope. We will meet next week at the same time and day. Until then I want you to organize your mind. Good night, Mr Potter."

"Good night, Professor Severus."

**AN(01.10.2011): Hmm.. only three chapters updated.. and still so much boring work..**


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter Four: Damsel in distress. Or "Who wants a barbecue?_

Gradually, days in Hogwarts were becoming a routine for Harry – every day there were lessons, both standard and extracurricular, eating, sleeping and a few moments to spend with his friends. Nevertheless friendship between him, Draco and Ron was becoming stronger with every passed hour.

September slowly but surely ceased, passing the reins of control to his colder and wetter brother October, who quickly showed everyone who's the boss by making the wind, which was already cool and strong, almost intolerably cold. It froze the ass of any fool which thought that it was still warm enough to wear summer robes.

But October too ended quickly – it gave its last burst in form of Halloween, like a dying male animal that spills its seed the last time in a desperate try to leave a mark on the world.

The teaching staff did extremely good work in decorating the Great Hall. Huge pumpkins, which were generously provided by Hagrid, were lit magically from inside by 'Cold Flame', and scowled evilly at the people who sat at the long tables. Thousands of thousands magical candles, that were lighting the Hall usually, were removed temporarily, thus, the atmosphere in the vast room was dark and gloomy, well, as much as it could be on such great day, - perfect for the Halloween.

The speech by Dumledore was short and simple – he wished good appetite to everyone and finished it with some nonsense again.

The house elves of Hogwarts literally put their souls into the food of the Feast, making sure that even the most grumpy git, e.g. Snape, would be satisfied with all edible things on the tables.

Harry was planning to enjoy the nice food and already brought his fork with a piece of roasted chicken pinned on it to his mouth, when their Defence professor rushed into the hall, panic written all over his face. He got the whole attention of the student body and Staff.

"Troll! Troll in the dungeons! Thought you should know." The man with idiotic turban on his head announced and fainted, falling on his face.

"Ouch! That must hurt like hell, mates. I wonder why this hit didn't return him back to consciousness." Ron commented, making all the Slytherin table burst in laugher.

Panic spreaded throughout the most of the students like fire in the forest, and, when some exceptionally creative and proactive members of the Hogwarts society tried to run to their dorms, the massive double doors shut and wouldn't open under any machinations.

Dumbledore pointed his wand upwards and a loud booming sound reverberated in the walls of the Great Hall and everyone's heads.

"Silence! I ask all the student to collect themselves. Prefects, escort your housemates to the dorms." he instructed, his voice magnified by the Sonorus Charm.

"But Slytherin one is in the dungeons!" Blaise shouted, his House and, Hufflepuffs upholding his statement. When the snakes looked strangely at puffs, their boy prefect answered for all of them.

"Our dorm is in the Dungeon too, thought in another part, but professor Quirrell haven't specified _in which _the troll is."

It was the kind of event that happened only once a century if not even less frequently.

Snape and Sprout were participating in the staring contest - theyobviously were not going to be best buddies any time soon.

"All the students must remain in the Great Hall then. Minerva, Severus – please come with me. The rest of the teaching staff – for as long as we deal with the troll you must make ensure that nothing happens to our students." Albus ordered.

It was absolutely unusual for the pupils to see their old jovial headmaster so deadly serious.

The trio of professors left, with Dumbledore at the front.

* * *

><p>They searched for the troll throughout all the first three levels of dungeons but didn't find it. Fortunately, as much as it could be so, they caught the trail of smell which reminded the professors of some kind of mix between rotten eggs, shit and piss, rich with acetone – definitely the mountain troll.<p>

They followed the trail, eventually approaching the doors of the women lavatory. The horrible stench turned into the sickeningly luscious smell of burnt flesh. They prepared themselves to face some terrible enemy already and swiftly entered the room, with wands at the ready.

What they saw there made their eyebrows collectively rise up in surprise: a half-burnt corpse of the troll was sprawled on the floor and no other than Hermione Granger stood by it with her wand at the side. Its tip still smoked a little so it was clearly obvious who cooked the monster.

She was smiling in a disturbing way and seemed to not notice the newcomers.

Albus, seeing Minerva and Severus simultaneously opening their mouths to excoriate the little girl, held up his right hand in a stopping gesture.

"Miss Granger, what happened here and why are you here and not on the feast?" Dumbledore questioned, pulling the girl out of her entranced state.

"Uh?" Hermione asked uncomprehendingly. She dumbly stared at the trio of professors for several seconds, finally returning into her senses. Her eyes opened wide in shock. "Professors? I didn't do anything wrong, I swear! My housemates, orchestrated by the twins, were teasing me again until I started to cry, so I ran away and hid there for the whole day. Then **it **appeared from nowhere and tried to smash me with its club. I know a few fire spells so I neutralized the troll with them."

McGonagall and Snape looked at each other for a second, apparently not believing such a poor-made tale.

Albus, on the other hand, knew that this girl was extremely talented and determined witch, capable to learn very advanced spells quickly because of her systematically working mind.

"My dear, the mountain troll is one of the most spell-resistant creatures in the world, only one kind of magic fire can burn their flesh effectively. So, my question is – how and where did you learn it?" the old wizard said.

Hermione got the first-hand experience of 'Un-grandfatherlized' Dumbledore. His blue eyes studied her coldly. She tried only once to look at them, but it freaked her out after a few seconds. She knew that she was in big trouble currently and the best way to minimize the damage was to spill the truth so she started to talk.

"I was always a pariah back in my muggle school, because I can consume the knowledge much faster than the others and was generally more erudite. But it wasn't the only reason. The second is my love of fire – I can watch it burn something for hours, it excites me, it warms me. When I once played with a muggle lighter, burning some wooden stick, my ex-classmate, Acacia Pearson, approached me and started to tease."

"Apparently I somehow set her skirt on fire with my accidental magic, fortunately for her, the members of staff quickly extinguished it, but I did earn my portion of infamy. This ensured my bond with this element. When I found out about the Library here, in Hogwarts, I immediately started searching for some powerful magic kind of flame. I eventually read the 'Purifying Warmth' by some anonymous wizard or witch, taking it from the Restricted Section. Why wasn't I caught? I studied the pattern in which our caretaker is patrolling the grounds during the week and sneaked there in the night."

She finished her explanation, looking down at her boots, in shame.

The professors stared at her, completely astonished by her story.

Of course the head of the Slytherin was the first to collect himself.

The man brought his heavy artillery.

"50 points from Gryffindor, for sneaking into the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library and taking the Dark Magic book from there. Albus I demand that this student is expelled from our school!"

"As much as it pains me to admit it, I must agree with you, Severus. We can not allow our students to study Dark Magic – especially _first years_!"

Hermione was looking like a little kitten that was abandoned on some street during the rain. Dumbledore just couldn't expel the poor girl – she was young and foolish, and couldn't understand the whole concept of Dark Magic. His exterior changed, becoming considerably more positive and friendly.

"While I agree with Minerva and Severus that the Dark Magic is dangerous, I don't think that you have to be punished, Ms Granger. And one hundred points to Gryffindor for your accomplishment of the exceptional feat – most of adult wizards can't harm the mountain troll, but you killed one, removing the possibility of it hurting not only you, but many other students too! Now go to the Great Hall – we will take care of the body." he said, smiling kindly, if a little bit weakly.

Hermione left the girl lavatory in instant, smiling brilliantly.

"Albus, sometimes I think that you are too crazy to be the headmaster. A hundred points for **this**! She should be expelled from the school, not encouraged to learn more Dark Magic by a reward." Severus retorted.

Minerva nodded in agreement.

"Ahh, you two are too harsh towards the young lady. However dark the fiendfyre is, she used it for doing a right thing **and **self-defence. Now let us dispose of the corpse. It stinks so horribly!" Dumbledore cut them both.

* * *

><p>Harry, Draco and Ron were sitting in their common room on the soft large seats by the fireplace. They were having an interesting discussion.<p>

"Have you heard it? That annoying muggleborn girl (What's her name? Ah yes), Granger, cooked a mountain troll with fiendfyre in the girl's toilets!" Draco said excitedly.

"You are such a rumour's bitch, blondie. Do you _really _believe such a piece of rubbish?" Ron replied

"My father sent me a letter with very specific instructions to be extremely careful with this girl. Apparently, he got the news from my godfather."

"And just who is your godfather, Draco?" Harry asked.

"Head of our House."

"Aha! That's why he is so nice with you, ponce!" Ron exclaimed.

"Yes, piece of anomaly."

Harry snorted at the epithets they called each other.

"Now you can't bully her, Ron, although you would be quite nice big piece of roasted weasel." He joked.

"True. Leave me alone I need some time to cry over this." Weasley replied, faking the saddest face he could, which in reality looked comically.

* * *

><p>Harry's friends both left Hogwarts, going to their respective homes, for Christmas. Draco and Ron both invited him, but he declined, telling them that the holidays were the perfect opportunity to learn from Dumbledore and Snape almost non-stop.<p>

He was taught by Alus for five hours a day, learning offensive and defensive spells alike and practising silent casting, and other three by Snape, becoming able to shrug off his mental attacks on Severus' half strength.

The boy received gifts from his friends – a dragon hide wand holster from Draco, a little animated replica of Norwegian Ridgeback from Ron and his father's invisibility cloak from his uncle.

"Cool! This will help me greatly in exploring the castle!" Harry thought.

He gifted a pair of warm red wool socks to Dumbledore and two copies of 'A thousand and one way to insult someone you dislike' book to Malfoy and Weasley.

When he once was reading 'Hogwarts a history', he found a mention of Slytherin creating some sort of secret hall underground before he left the school. He asked his uncle about it and was told a story about the death of one little girl in an abandoned girl's toilet, whose body was never found.

One day he put on his father's cloak and went there. The lavatory was a wet mess, inhabited by a ghost, who as she told him was called by everyone Moaning Myrtle.

"So you know my name, what's yours?" she asked.

"Harry Potter. I wanted to ask you about the day you died and the way it happened." Harry replied, hoping that he didn't offend her by his straightforwardness.

Fortunately, he didn't – the ghost of a girl became excited and started telling him everything she remembered.

"..Olive Hornby teased me all the day, so I went there and cried in one of the cabins. I don't know how long I had been crying, but suddenly I saw _something _that had a huge pair of yellow eyes. When I looked at them I died in an instant. Once it was the time to make a choice, I decided to stay in this world and make Olive's time in Hogwarts as close to hell as it's possible."

Myrtle was getting a pure pleasure out of revealing the secret of her unfortunate death.

"Oh. I see." Harry said, disturbed by the words of weird ghost. The boy started to look for something _different_.

Here it was - one of the water taps on the sinks resembled snake's head with tiny emerald eyes.

"Yeah. Maybe Salazar Slytherin was one of the greatest wizards ever living, but he truly suffered from complete lack of imagination and creativity.." Harry thought.

"_Hi there, little one_!" he said to the tap jocosely. He was shocked, realising that his words weren't English, but then he hardly suppressed a silly urge to start dancing in triumph. Still, he was literally bathing in his own awesomeness.

"I am a Parselmouth! Yay! _Open_"

All of the sinks went aside, opening a large hole, whose bottom he didn't see.

"Myrtle, please inform the headmaster that I went down to explore the Chamber of Secrets." Harry told the ghost and started levitating himself trough the passage.

The way was long and utterly boring. When the boy reached the bottom he was half-asleep.

Something crunched under his feet, immediately waking him up.

He cancelled the levitation

'Lumos'

The floor was carpeted with animal bones and a huge chunk of some serpent's skin laid closely.

"What a heck?" Harry exclaimed, his jaw on the floor.

"A basilisk here? I'm not moving any further until uncle comes here.."

He just thought that when Dumbledore emerged from the spectacular burst of flame, his familiar, Fawkes, on his right shoulder. He seemed to be worried, but breathed in relief once he saw his pupil.

"Harry, what are you doing here?"

"Hi, uncle. I discovered the Chamber of Secrets and was waiting for you, to find what it holds together."

"It was a wise move to call me before proceeding any further, Harry. Put on your cloak and follow me." old wizard said, casting Lumos, while Harry Nox'ed his.

* * *

><p>They approached a huge double doors with two serpents engraved on them – their heads were facing each other and their bodies were coiled around. Dumbledore tried every opening spell he knew on it. When Albus reached his sixteenth one, Harry began to wonder how many his mentor knew.<p>

"Uncle, that's enough. I know what I should do. _Open_" he hissed the last part in parseltongue.

Dumbledore was surprised.

"Harry, my boy, you are a parselmouth! Why did you never tell me?" he asked the boy, a little bit hurt that the boy didn't trust him completely.

"I found it out ten minutes ago, uncle, making the main entrance in girls' lavatory open."

"Oh well, we can talk about it later today. For now, let us proceed further."

Harry took off his cloak and followed his uncle.

They entered the huge hall. Two parallel rows of pillars stood, each near one of the side walls, large stone snakes with huge intimidating emerald eyes were coiling around them. In the far end of the hall stood a large stone impression of Salazar Slytherin himself, which looked a little bit like a monkey.

"Wow, he was quite a looker." Harry said quizzically.

"Indeed he was" the headmaster played along "Do you see that the lower part of his face is actually movable? I think his mouth opens if some condition is met."

"Being such a self-loving brat, he would just require me to say something stupid like: '_Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four!' _" Harry said sarcastically.

When the mouth indeed opened, his face abruptly got rid of bored expression.

Something **big **hissed and started to slither out of the opened passage: a snake, about seventy feet long and 8 feet in girth, slowly but surely was approaching them.

Dumbledore eyes opened wide for a moment – he was really surprised by its size, but then the steel of determination returned back into them.

"Find some cover, Harry, and don't try to play a hero – heroes do not have the happily ever after. I will take care of the basilisk." He instructed the boy.

The old wizard sharply pointed his wand at the right wall and made a pulling gesture, ripping a huge chunk of stone and earth from it. He transfigured some of the debris into iron beams, enforcing the considerable tunnel he made thus eliminating the chance of a landslide.

Albus transformed the rest of wreck into a true monstrosity: it had a general resemblance to humanoid, with long hands with fists the size of a fully-grown man, thick legs with massive feet, heavy torso, and very short neck that connected the rest of the body with head with two eye-sockets in which violet flame was burning. The huge stone abomination roared deafeningly and engaged the snake into fight.

Once it reached the basilisk, Dumbledore's creation grabbed the monster of Chamber under its head, suffocating it.

The basilisk somehow escaped the grip and tried to coil around the golem, apparently in hope of immobilizing the construct – it would be the right choice if not one serious problem.

It was much stronger than the snake.

The stone giant caught the lower jaw of the huge animal with its left hand, and did the same with its right hand and upper jaw of the basilisk.

It started slowly pulling the jaws to the opposite sides, making king of snakes wail in excruciating agony.

Finally the construct tore the snake's lower jaw and a chunk of its throat away, throwing it on the floor.

Dark blood started pumping outside from the artery in a fountain, spilling quickly thickening liquid on the cold stone of the Chamber of Secrets.

Golem hit the floor repeatedly with the remaining head of the monster, turning it into bloody mess.. or mash.

The monster snake's body convulsed on the floor for a minute and abruptly laid still.

The stone servant was dismissed by its master, its eyes loosing the flame in its eye-sockets and body crumbling in pieces.

Dumbledore cast a diagnostic charm on the huge serpent, which responded with green glowing aura.

"It is dead for sure. Come out of your hiding spot, my boy".

The third axiom in the magical world. Never become an enemy of the wizard as powerful and skilled as Albus Dumbledore. If you would like to live a long cheerful life.

Harry Potter's jaw was on the floor the second time in half an hour. He had a burning desire inside of him – he wanted to be as good, as his uncle, _or even better_.

Albus chuckled, seeing Harry's awed face

"One day you will be much better wizard than me, Harry, taking my place in this world. For now, let us see what lies beyond the statue's mouth. After me, my boy."

They levitated themselves inside the stone impression.

The entrance room was quite large. Large and with huge piles of snakes faeces on its floor.

Albus cast the Bubblehead charm on both of them.

There was another door. Beyond it was a room which for sure was the private quarters of Salazar Slytherin: there was a fireplace that was not lit for a lo-o-ong time for sure, comfortable chair stood by it, a few shelves on the walls full of books, and a large bed coloured, evidently, in green and silver.

While the words written on book covers were some mumbo-jumbo for Dumbledore, for Harry they were readable.

"They are written in Parseltongue, uncle. May I take them?" Harry asked with puppy eyes which Albus ignored.

At least, he tried to ignore.

"I'm not sure, my boy. Aren't they little bit dangerous for you?"

"I'll be very careful."

"Let me check them for the curses first."

He cast a diagnostic spell on them, making them glow neutral white

"They are safe, or, it's better to say, not cursed. Just don't let Salazar's ideas get into your young head."

"I won't, uncle. I promise." Harry said and shrank all the books with a charm, putting them in his pocket happily - his mind started itching to read them already.

"Fawkes!"

The great phoenix appeared on headmaster's shoulder

"Take us to my office, my friend"

The bird trilled happily and made them all disappear in a bright flash of fiery flame, leaving the lonely room behind.

* * *

><p>Harry read the diary of Slytherin, finding no last made confessions or some similar nonsense. It told him about one of the four school founders' life – the first notes being entered in it when Salazar was just a young man about fourteen years old.<p>

Salazar described how he once met other three founders in his dwellings. After a decade of adventuring together and becoming accomplished wizards, which names were famous in all the magical world, and rich, they found a school, so becoming known as the Hogwarts Four.

The last notes were some wild flow of crazy ranting that tried to prove the pureblood supremacy. But Harry knew who proved otherwise to Slytherin.

With the help of highly enchanted magical sword. Or, actually, a slash of one.

By reading the 'Parseltongue and its uses' book, he found out that he could, instead of usual words, use 'parseltongued' ones, making it difficult for 99.999 percent, or something close, of magical people to predict his moves in combat.

Other books were describing Salazar's research of the soul vessels and private collection of spells described for his heir. And while Harry wasn't sure he was related to Slytherin, he was sure that he will learn every one of them.

He also took a note to not forget telling his uncle about this 'soul vessels'.

* * *

><p>Albus looked grieved when he heard that.<p>

"Harry, the news you bring are most grief. Now, I think, there is no point in not showing you the Prophecy, my boy. The Dark Lord knows only the first half of it. But I, being the witness of its appearance, have the memory of it."

He approached one of the cabinets and took a strange bowl, which was made of coarse stone.

He touched his right temple with the tip of his wand, looking totally concentrated. Harry's eyes opened wide when Albus pulled out a silvery strand that was waving lazily out of feeble flow of the air in the office.

"What is it, uncle?" Harry asked.

"This useful tool is called a Pensieve, young man. It allows you to see memories you put inside of it. Now come here. I'll show you my memory of the day when the prophecy was made."

'_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ...'_

The-boy-who-knew-he-was-screwed looked pale.

"I'm the only one that can kill Voldemort, uncle? But how?" the boy asked his old mentor desperately.

"Harry, don't let emotions take control over you – it is the most definite feature of a weak man. In a few more years, I'll teach you everything absolutely vital for you to at least successfully hold him off for a long enough time to escape. I will start to search for this 'soul vessels' during the summer – do not try to do it by yourself. And Harry, it is of utmost importance that you begin to learn not only from me and Severus, but on your own at any possible opportunity." the old said seriously.

"I know, uncle Albus. I won't let you and my parents down", Harry said, a bright steel of determination flashed in his emerald-green eyes for the first time ever in his eleven-years-long life.

**_AN(02.10.2011): Eww.. completely redone half of this chapter. Tell me if you like it more or don't give a damn, because you, like most normal people, don't read prologues =). Five more chapters revised, and I drop the bomb (I'm sure you'll love it!) which I promised on your heads._**


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter Five: The Greatest Desire_

The spring semester started in blink of an eye. And Harry didn't even notice it, until the students came back from wherever they stayed during the holidays.

The boy was too deeply buried in his studies – lessons with Dumbledore and Snape and reading the books that he took from the private quarters of Slytherin took a huge chunk of his time.

* * *

><p>He didn't event went to the Hogsmeade station to meet his friends and saw them for the first time in new year only when they arrived in the dorms.<p>

The redhead was first to greet him. Apparently Ron and Draco both weren't upset with Harry at all.

"Hi, Potty, how was your boring break?" Ron asked, while squeezing the green eyed boy in very strong manly hug.

"Much, better than yours, overgrown brat." Potter answered with a smile.

Ron stepped to the side, revealing Draco who stood behind him.

He extended his right hand to our hero.

"Hello, Harry. I see you've enjoyed your own dose of Weasley's hug. He almost broke all my bones when he squeezed me, you know. How is your training going?"

"Great, Draco." Harry said, while shaking Malfoy's hand.

His other dormmates came in and greeted him. After talking a little with them, they went to the common room and occupied the chairs in front of the fireplace.

* * *

><p>"Guys, we need to talk." Harry said.<p>

He cast a privacy ward around them – for everyone but the Trio, their discussion would seem to be some usual nonsense about the quidditch, girls and so on.

"Wow, Harry, mate, how come you are know how to cast the privacy ward? What have the old fart done with you?" Ron asked. He was completely surprised by how far his friend gone already in his studies.

Harry dismissed the question as rhetorical.

He was deadly serious now.

"I wish to share some information with you, but before I start spilling it, I must ask you both to swear on your magic that what I tell you won't be passed to someone else in any way. Do you accept this condition?"

His red-haired friend became excited in instant.

"I'm game, Harry."

Draco thought through, carefully weighing all For's and Against's.

Finally, after three minutes, he made up his mind.

"I'm in too."

After they swore the vows, Harry told them everything that happened with him during the holidays. His story excited the boys, especially the part about the Chambler of Secrets.

"Now I see why You-Know-Who was afraid of Dumbledore." Malfoy muttered, shaking his hand disbelievingly.

"**Is** afraid, Draco" Harry corrected "But he also is secretly afraid of me too, I think."

Draco arched his left eyebrow in silent question to him.

"What do you mean?" Ron asked.

"There is a prophecy about me being the only one who can kill Voldemort and vice versa." Potter answered, revealing the Prophecy to them.

Weasley and Malfoy were sceptical at first when Harry told them that it was Trelawney who made the Prophecy, but he reasoned it by saying that if his mentor and nemesis both believed in this piece of rubbish so was he too.

"You are utterly deep in flobberworm shit, Harry. Have you written the Wish already?" Draco joked, relieving the atmosphere a little.

"No, but I have outlined it already. You know, at least I'm prepared informationally-wise now. And who's forewarned is forearmed." Harry replied, cancelling the privacy ward.

* * *

><p>When Harry went to his lesson with Dumbledore that day, he saw a unlikely picture – the old wizard was looking into magnificent seven feet tall mirror, whose golden frame glittered enigmatically in the warm light of circular room.<p>

_'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi'_ Harry read silently.

"Hello, uncle, I would have never guessed that you are a narcissistic person." Harry joked.

"Huh? Ah, hello my boy, I was so entranced by the image this mirror showed me. Come, look in it." Albus said and stepped aside.

Harry stood in front of it and was completely taken by surprise from the image he saw – instead of his usual eleven year old self, a man stood, almost as tall as Dumbledore, black haired, green eyed, with kind, if not a little bit sly, smile on his face. He was clothed in majestic white robes with fancy golden trimmings of the Supreme Mugwump of ICW. Then the realization struck him, once he saw a lightning-bolt-shaped scar on man's forehead – it was him!.

"I see myself, but.. older and.. being the Supreme Mugwump. Does it mean something bad, uncle?" Harry asked worriedly.

Dumbledore chuckled kindly.

"Of course not, Harry. Although I thought you would see your parents, most of children your age have this kind of dreams..."

"They are dead, uncle, and as you told me already dead will be dead and nothing, even magic can change it. The only thing I can do now is preparing myself to face Voldemort and stop him from harming anyone else." Harry replied with a look of unbreakable determination.

"You make me proud, showing how mature you are already, my boy." Albus said quietly.

"What do you see in the mirror, uncle?" the boy asked his mentor.

Dumbledore's gaze met Harry's eyes. The old man weighed his response and finally decided to tell boy the truth – there was no need to keep it a secret from the youth."

"I see my deceased sister, Ariana, whom I failed utterly as an older brother. I used to be young and foolish once, my boy, and had a very radical set of views on life. My arrogance killed her, Harry – I will never forgive myself for it."

Albus' light blue eyes became unfocused – the old man was somewhere far-far away for a moment.

He collected himself, at long last, and looked in Harry's eyes.

"But this is a story for another time and place, my boy. Let us begin our lesson - today you will learn the Patronus Charm..."

* * *

><p>The time passed fast and Harry studied hard.<p>

He asked Albus once if the old man knew some place for him and his friends to study together, and his mentor just happened to indeed possess a knowledge about such place. Room of Requirement, or Come-and-Go Room, as the elves called it. It was located on the seventh floor and its entrance was located on the opposite from the portrait of some knight that tried to teach trolls ballet. The machinations of revealing it was explained to the boy, so the Trio started occupying it every day.

Harry's friends had completely different strong sides - while Ron had a lot of raw magical power, which suited his impressive frame and fiery temper, Draco was not as powerful, but fascinatingly agile, and quick and precise with his casting.

Summer exams were a piece of cake for Harry – all teachers were completely fascinated by his abilities. He was surely going to be the top first year student – he knew that, his head of House knew that and already was constantly sneering arrogantly whenever he saw McGonagall, Flitwick or Sprout.

* * *

><p>A few days before the end of the year, he was approached by certain bushy haired young witch. She drugged him into an empty classroom by force and his wrist hurt even after she let it go.<p>

"Ok, Granger, we are alone here. What do you wish to talk about so hard? Obviously it's not because you want to confess about your feelings towards me." Harry said sarcastically. His stunning-incarcerating-disarming contingency was ready to neutralize her faster than she would say 'Library', if she stupidly tried to harm him,

"Potter, do you know what is kept in the forbidden corridor on the third floor?" she questioned him.

"Dunno. Dumbledore's private collection of sweets?" Harry answered sarcastically, not wanting to tell her that he knew exactly what was kept there – his mentor told him about the stone and asked him to not try finding some adventure there.

Granger was utterly irritated with his insufferable behaviour, but she needed him.

"There is no room for jokes. Professor Snape will try to steal the Philosopher's Stone today!"

Harry looked down at the girl as if he was a tired professor who tried to drill something into the stone head of small ignorant child.

"You surprise me with your exceptional deduction, Granger. Do you really think that my Head of House is such an idiot? **If** there is someone who tries to steal the stone, he is not the one for sure."

"Then who?" she asked him irritably.

"How **I** should know? It can be even this stupid stuttering DADA teacher with turban on his head, I don't care." he answered her, bored.

"But we **must** stop whoever tries to steal the stone, Harry!" she exclaimed desperately.

"Oh, great. Now I'm 'Harry', huh?" He sighed tiredly "Well, it seems like you won't leave me be any time soon.. Follow me"

"Where are we going?" she asked him, while trying not to fall behind.

"To my common room. We must first take Ron and Draco with us..."

"Why don't we warn the headmaster first?"

Harry shook his head, irritated by the constant flow of stupid questions from Hermione.

"**Because** he is on the ICW meeting today. Granger, you've just surprised me again! Do you think Dumbledore would just let the thief steal the stone?"

They finally made their way to the stone dead end in the dungeons . He pushed her back a little and cast a privacy ward around him. After telling the password to the entrance he cancelled the ward.

"Although it's only a few days before the year ends, I won't ever let some idiotic gryffindor know our password. Wait for me here." Harry said and entered.

The stone wall closed behind him.

He returned with his two friends after about ten minutes.

"Hi, bookworm. How are you miserable life?" Ron asked her conversationally. Unlike him, Draco completely ignored Hermione, not even saying "Hi".

She was enraged by these words, but Harry abruptly stopped them.

"There is no time for arguments right now. Let's go, you can kick each other's asses after we deal with our little problem." he said.

* * *

><p>They entered a large room, from which the thunderous snoring could be heard. A huge three-headed dog was sleeping sweetly by a trapdoor, which was opened by somebody before them. A harp was playing some simple tune by itself and Harry automatically recalled the required charm.<p>

The party approached the hatch, staring into the darkness beyond it.

"Does somebody really think **we**, I mean Ron, me and you, Harry, are so ridiculously stupid to just jump inside?" Draco asked incredulously.

Ron snorted when Hermione sent a murderous look Malfoy – she hated the blond boy already.

"Uh-uh. Levitation on three?" Harry asked, subtly winking to his friends.

"One! Two!... Four!..." Ron and Draco laughed madly when Granger jumped alone.

"Three!" They proceeded themselves.

The floor was soft and slippery – that worried them all greatly.

"Lumos!" the trio chorused.

"It's Devil's Snare! It's afraid of fire only!" the bushy haired girl panicked.

"Oh really? So what? From what I've heard **you** are the pyromaniac who likes fiendfyre!" Ron parried her.

Suddenly she had a little bit crazy glow in her eyes

"Oh..." was the only coherent word from her mouth.

They took a step away from her.

"Ron, Draco! Levitate yourself as up NOW!" Harry shouted and the trio quickly levitated themselves as high as possible. Ron even hit the ceiling with his head, loosing his concentration, but, fortunately, Draco's reflexes saved the boy from getting his ass fried.

It seemed like Hell fell on the large carnivorous plant: a fiery inferno, which changed its shapes from one terrible form to another, was rapidly consuming the Devil's Snare.

Hermione's voice crackled in a mad laughing

"HA-HA-HA! YES! BU-U-U-RN!" she exclaimed in sheer euphoria.

When the plant turned into ash, Harry subtly stupefied her, making the flames disappear.

"She is _crazy_, mates." Ron stated slowly. He was shocked, to say the least.

"She is." Draco agreed, looking carefully at stunned girl.

He actually started to respect her a little for accomplishing such a feat. Just a bit.

Harry woke her, casting a spell

'Rennervate'

She slowly opened her eyes and looked around, completely disoriented.

"Ah... What happened?" she asked them and suddenly the memories returned to her, making her shudder as if a bucket of ice cold water was shed on her.

"You've seen everything, haven't you? Do you think now that I am mad?"

"A mad, dangerous witch, Granger. But you did your work." Draco said.

"Let's see what lies further, guys - you may both solemnly declare your love for each other once we are done here." Harry said.

They proceeded further, entering a large room with huge chessboard with human-sized figures on it.

"We must have a party of chess, really?" Ron asked loudly no one in particular.

The queen of white started to tell them the rules but was interrupted by the redhead, who lost his patience already.

"Shut up!" Weasley shouted, casting 'Bombarda' at the talking figure.

It exploded in a shower of stone shrapnel thus triggering the retaliation from the rest of figures, which started approaching the quartet.

"I _hate_ you, Ron" Draco mumbled irritably.

He, Harry and Hermione followed Weasley's eloquent example.

Chess figures, being extremely slow, were very easy targets.

Once the redhead had finished off the last one they moved onwards through the sea of stone debris.

They entered a vast room with _high_ ceiling.

"Is that birds?" Ron asked.

"No, idiot, they're keys." Draco answered.

They went to the opposite side of the room, stopping by a door, which, after being checked by Ron, was proven to be closed.

"So we need to open it with some _particular _key." Hermione stated.

"Oh really? Such a shame. I thought we needed to dance Step in front of it!" the redhead snapped at her.

"Try it, Ron. I'm sure there is nothing more funny in the magical world than dancing Ronald Weasley.", Draco joked.

"While I too do want to see such an extraordinary show, we need to find, and then somehow catch the right key, guys. Wait, I know!" Harry exclaimed.

He stepped under the swarm of flying keys and dispelled them all, making an arch-like gesticulation by his right hand, wand firmly gripped in it. The clung of metal falling on the stone floor was heard by everyone in the room.

"It's good to be friends with Harry Potter." Ron said half-seriously, half-quizzically.

Draco just shrugged his shoulders, and Hermione was awed by how easily Potter controlled his magic already. But she knew better than to start asking him some questions again.

Harry came close to the pile of keys on the floor and rummaged through it.

"Aha! Here it is, people!" he exclaimed happily, shaking his left fist in the air, with a large winged key squeezed between his fingers firmly.

The next room met them with insufferable stench, making all four young people cover their noses with hands. There were two huge mountain trolls lying on the floor apparently dead.

"At least they're not alive." Harry tried to cheer them up.

They left the room, entering the next one.

When the last of the quartet, which was Hermione, entered, the passage behind them was blocked by purple flame. The next one was also inaccessible, thanks to the wall of black flame. There was a stone table with seven bottles of strange potions and a roll of paper on it.

Hermione seized it.

"It's a riddle. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire and one will get us back through the purple." she said after a long pause.

"Aww... I hate this place! Bombarda Maxima!" shouted Ron, casting an empowered exploding charm at wall on the right from the blocked path.

The charm took a large chunk of the wall off.

"I know, I know – I'm a genius, thank you." the redhead stated snobbishly and bowed to them artistically.

Harry and Draco laughed at Ron's antics and the trio started to make an improvised passage, while Hermione stared incredulously at them.

Making large enough hole in the wall, they entered the circular room with the Erised Mirror at the centre. Quirinus Quirrell stood in front of it, muttering some nonsense.

"Blasted mirror! Give me the stone right now!" he loudly ordered to his own image in the mirror.

"I see myself claiming it and giving it then to you, master, again and again. Why can't I just blast it?" he asked.

"You may accidentally destroy the stone too, Quirinus. But do turn around now, there are guests waiting for you. Show them your hospitality, be a nice host." a sinister voice, that was coming from the turban on the man's head, instructed

"Potter! And you three, too! I though The-Boy-Who-Lived would come alone, you know." Quirrell said silently, turning around sharply.

" Potter, you will get the stone from this stupid mirror and give it to me before I begin to torture and kill your friends here! With the stone's power, my master will be revived again, even more great than he was before!" He exclaimed with fanatical flame in his eyes.

Harry looked bored with their DADA professor's rantings, as much as Ron and Draco. Hermione, on other hand, had a crazy glint in her eyes again.

'Expelliarmus!' their DADA professor cast loudly, trying to disarm Harry.

But the boy hadn't been studying so long for nothing – he swiftly side-stepped the spell, letting it pass a mere inch away from himself.

"My turn..." Harry said, pointing his wand at the pathetic man in front of him.

'Brat'

A single word released his contingency, stunning incarcerating and disarming Quirrell - all at once.

He caught the man's wand and snapped it in halves.

His fresh display of power and knowledge awed his friends and Hermione, making their eyes open unnaturally wide and eyebrows fly unnaturally high.

"Why haven't you teach _this_ kind of stuff to us, Harry" Ron asked, faking a miserable tone.

"Dumbledore made me swear him a wizard oath, promising not to teach this technique to anyone, but my future protégé. And I'm not going to take one for the next hundred years, at least"

"Oh well. I know that you would show us if you could, mate." the redhead said, approaching the idle form of Quirrell.

He kicked him on the back of the head. A distinct noise of something breaking was heard by the four.

"Argh! You petulant child! How dare you to touch me, Lord Voldemort. I will torture and kill all your family in front of you, making you watch their suffering and death, and then finish you off!" the sinister voice exclaimed.

The party was shocked for a moment.

Harry, ragaining control over himself faster than the others, quickly vanished the turban on the Quirrell's head with a swish of his wand, revealing a scaly nose-less face with crimson-red eyes.

Voldemort.

"Hermione," Harry called Granger, making the girl turn her gaze to him. "I would like a portion of Roasted Voldemort, without salt and pepper, please."

Hermione didn't need to be asked twice: she burnt Voldemort/Quirell with fiendfyre, making the mistake of nature wail in excruciating pain. The air in the room was filled with a distinct odor of burnt human flesh.

In a few moments, only a pile of ash was left on the stone floor.

A dark apparition left the body before it was burnt – fiendfyre burnt **everything** - and rocketed forward through the air in a desperate attempt to possess Harry.

The-Boy-Who-Lived felt a huge burst of excruciating pain in his scar, but something made Voldemort leave his body.

The spirit of the Dark Lord left the room through the ceiling as fast as it could.

Harry's sight blurred and he fell on the floor, unconscious, his friends and Granger standing in circle around him with worried expressions.

* * *

><p>Harry awoke the next morning in the Hogwarts infirmary, feeling the hard mattress of the bed under his back. He stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, getting himself together. Once he recalled all events, he went to madam Pomfrey' office and asked her to fire-call the headmaster.<p>

The worried headmaster entered the medical wing in half an hour.

"Hi, uncle. Why didn't you use your familiar's ability?" Harry asked, sitting on the bed he slept in recently.

"Hello, my boy. I don't wish to disturb Fawkes every time some problem emerges, and also my old legs need to be in good shape. How are you?"

He conjured a comfortable looking chair and sat on it.

"I'm alright, I guess." Harry answered."

"Good. When I returned from the ICW meeting, Severus immediately informed me about you being in the infirmary. Tell me what happened beyond the trapdoor."

Harry told his uncle everything that happened on that day.

"I see. Also it was very bad that you allowed Miss Granger to kill Quirinus, I understand your logic there: he was possessed by the spirit of Voldemort, who would destroy him sooner or later, after the professor wasn't of any use for him any more, so he was damned. I will speak with her later today and assure the girl that she won't be expelled for what she did. Now, Harry, you should prepare yourself and go to the Great Hall in two hours – there'll be Parting Feast. See you there, my boy." Albus told Harry and left him alone.

Harry quickly cleaned himself with a few charms here and there and left the room too, thanking the matron on the way out.

He first went to the Slytherin common room and was greeted there by his two best friends, whose worry for him evaporated as soon as they saw the green-eyed wizard.

* * *

><p>The Great Hall's dominating colours were green and silver this day – the House of Slytherin was victorious. For the seventh time. This fact made Harry chuckle.<p>

"The magic of numbers indeed." he thought.

After everyone sat behind their respective tables, Albus stood up and gave his parting speech for the current academic year.

"Another year has passed! Before you sink your teeth in delicious food that our elves prepared for us today, I must trouble you with an old man's ranting. What a year it has been! Hopefully, your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts.."

"The House here needs awarding and the points stand thus: in fourth place, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; in third, Gryffindor, with three hundred and eighty; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

A storm of cheering broke out from the Slytherin table, the trio being the most enthusiastic.

"Yes, all hail the Slytherin House! But I need to take in account a few recent activities. First, to Miss Granger, for the use of... cool logic... in the face of fire, I award the Gryffindor House a hundred points!"

The red and gold house burst in happy exclamations, those who were close to the heroine of the moment congratulated her happily. And their head of the House was looking proud – Harry could swear he saw how she smiled with triumph to Snape, making the man's right eye twitch in irritation.

The entire Slytherin table looked pissed.

"Second – to Ronald Weasley, for extraordinary and creative use of 'Bombarda' and 'Bombarda Maxima' charms, I award the Slytherin House with thirty five points!"

The snakes cheered like never before.

"Third – to Mr Malfoy for his unquestionable help to his friends, I award Slytherin with another set of thirty five points!"

All slytherins were ecstatic now.

"The last but not the least. I award Harry Potter with seventy points, for being able to stop a dangerous person from taking the Philosopher's Stone."

Every one of his housemates, but a certain black haired witch, congratulated him.

"The Slytherin House remains on the first place!"

Snape stopped his urge to grin maniacally, which took him a great deal of self-restrain.

"Now, dig in!"

The mountains of delicious food appeared and everyone started eating.

* * *

><p>Harry went to the headmaster's office to speak with him for the final time during current academic year.<p>

"Hello again, uncle. I wish to discuss with you my summer time." he told the old wizard.

"It's nice to see you so soon, Harry. I think you are able enough to defend yourself, so you may spend your summer break in one of your friend's house."

The boy's eyes lit with happiness and Dumbledore chuckled and shook his head, seeing it.

"I personally recommend you to spend Summer with the scion of the House Malfoy. A connection or, in ideal, a warm relationship with such strong pureblood family, will help you a lot in the future, especially, on the political arena of the Wizarding world. By the way, why have you stopped courting the young miss that you liked so much?" he finished talking with a knowing smile.

Harry stiffened a bit.

"I... we... After one encounter with her during the fall semester, my feelings... dulled a bit, I guess." he mumbled.

"Harry you are too young to speak such nonsense! You must not let some little things stop you on this front, you know. But. If nothing happens between you two, maybe you'll find another girl, and another... until you find the one for who you will make the mountains crumble and the oceans dry." the wise wizard said with twinkling in his eyes.

"Continue your studying. Especially your practising of Mind Arts. I'm sure the next academic years will be very eventful. Now go to your friends, my boy."

"Bye, uncle Albus." Harry left the office and went to his common room.

* * *

><p>"So, Harry, what are your plans for the summer break?" Draco asked his friend "If you don't have any, maybe you would like to spend it in the Malfoy manor? Weasley, you are invited too, by the way."<p>

"I'll spend a week or two with my own family and then come to your place, blondie." Ron agreed.

"I accept your invitation, oh great heir of the Noble House of Malfoy!" Harry agreed, bowing to his blond friend jocosely.

"I wouldn't even thought you could dismiss my invitation, oh Heir of the Ancient and Noble house of Potter!" Draco played along in a fake snobbish manner.

Weasley laughed at their antics.

* * *

><p>They found an empty compartment in the Hogwarts Express and occupied it. Harry locked the door with an advanced closing charm and cast a privacy ward.<p>

The trio spent their day-long trip chatting and playing the Exploding Snap, not being disturbed for the whole way.

* * *

><p>The platform nine and three quarters was as crowded as it was ten months ago. Draco, Ron and Harry approached their respective relatives.<p>

"Hello, uncle Vernon, you look as well as you did before. Aunt. Dudley." Harry greeted his last blood relatives.

"Hello boy. How was your school year?" Vernon grunted – what? He was paid for being civil with the boy.

"It was very enjoyable, thank you very much, uncle Vernon. I wanted to inform you that I won't spend Summer in you pleasant company. Instead, I'll go to my friend's place. So goodbye. And do take care of yourselves."

The Dursley patriarch looked like Christmas came half of a year sooner.

"You too, boy." Vernon pressed out from himself.

Dursleys left, almost jumping in joy.

Harry went to greet the family of redheads then.

"Hello there, mister and missus Weasley, Harry Potter, your youngest son's best friend." he said with a polite smile.

The Weasley couple smiled back kindly.

Mr Weasley extended his hand and Harry shook it firmly.

"Hi, Harry! The name is Arthur, here's my wife, Molly, the rest you know already. It's nice to finally meet you. My son told me about you and.." here Arthur looked like he swallowed a lemon sherbet, which Harry's mentor liked so much, ".. another friend."

His wife took over then

"Hello, my dear! I'm so happy that Ron found such a great friend in Hogwarts. Let me introduce my youngest one – Ginevra, do come closer."

A petite girl with fiery red hair and cute freckled face smiled shyly at Harry. He smiled back brilliantly and was poked painfully on his right side by Ron for it.

"Don't even think about it, scar-head! I see you closer than three feet to her and I break your tiny neck!" he threatened.

"Ron, why are you so protective? I didn't even think about what you think I think!" Harry replied.

Ron patted him on the back friendly

"Good."

"Emm... Ok... I should go now. Goodbye, everyone." Harry said and left them to meet the whole blond family.

"Good day, lord Malfoy." he said, shaking the man's hand, "And you, my lady."

He turned to the voluptuous woman and gently kissed the back of her elegant hand.

"Mr Potter, may I call you Harry?" the Malfoy patriarch asked him.

"Of course, lord Malfoy."

"Then, call me and my wife Lucius and Narcissa, Harry." the tall man with blond, almost white, hair said.

"Our son spoke about you so ecitedly during the Christmas holidays, Harry. He said that you don't have equals in skill and talent in your year." Narcissa told, giving the green eyed wizard a beautiful smile.

"Mother, Father. Harry agreed to spend the summer break in our manor." Draco wedged in their conversation.

"Excellent! Harry, I'll make sure that this summer is the most perfect for you." Lucius said, taking a long thin golden chain from his pocket

"This is a portkey, Harry. I'll activate it now - everyone make contact with it."

They complied.

"_Malfoy Manor_"

Harry felt hooked under his navel and the colourful blur began to swirl around him, or he began to swirl around the colourful blur – who knows for sure?

_**AN(02.10.2011): another chapter revised, hope you like it more than before.**_


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter Six: Blond Roundelay_

Axiom. Again. 'Harry Potter hates travelling by portkeys even more than by apparating'. Period.

After being moved a long distance in but a few moments, the green eyed boy was unceremoniously spat on the ground. Fortunately, his reflexes improved a great deal during his time in the Hogwarts out of his rigorous training, so he didn't fall on his behind this time.

What he saw before him made his jaw fall on the floor once again. Narcissa laughed beautifully at his face, and it was a gentle music to his ears, which were embarrassingly red, though not only them.

The manor was a majestic, large and wide two story building. Before it a vast yard laid, which was separated on parts by tall green fence, white peacocks perching on top of it.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Lucius asked Harry, proud to see that his family place awed the boy so much.

Harry asked Mr Malfoy to tell him some of his family history – Lucius gave him a small lecture. Apparently the man could speak on the topic _forever_.

" Almost three hundred years ago, after our family broke in two halves, the one from which I come immigrated to England and the Malfoy Manor was built under the supervision of Brutus Malfoy, my great ancestor, whose notable deeds earned the 'Noble' title for my House. Leave your bags here, Harry - the house elves will take care of them." the Malfoy patriarch said.

"Dobby!" he called sharply.

An ugly humanoid-like creature, two feet tall, with brownish skin, long ears and tennis ball sized eyes appeared with loud 'Pop' in front of them.

"Master called Dobby! Your humble servant awaits your command!" the creature exclaimed, bowing so low its nose almost touched the earth.

"Take Harry's things to the best guest room we have."

Dobby complied, taking boy's trunks and apparating away.

The entrance hall was as huge and richly decorated as Harry imagined, maybe even more. Wide stairs of white marble went up, separating to the opposite sides in the middle. There was a wide balcony above it, whose parapet was made of mahogany.

The Malfoy family crest was placed under the balcony.

"_Sanctimonia Vincet Semper –_ purity always conquers, so banal" Harry thought and mentally rolled his eyes. The amount of wealth that shined everywhere around the boy made him a little dizzy.

"Draco will show you the place, Harry. I will be in my study – if you have some important questions come there. I'm sure that my wife has something to do too." Lucius looked strangely at Narcissa "The dinner will be ready at seven pm - one of the house elves will inform you."

He gently put his right arm around her waist and they walked away together. Harry could have sworn that he saw how Mrs Malfoy grabbed her husband's ass when they almost turned around the corner.

Draco seemingly relaxed once his parents left the hall – all his posture became less stiff. He slowly breathed and turned to his friend.

"Finally... Let's go Harry - I'll show you the place." Draco said.

The manor was ridiculously vast and made Harry wonder why somebody would need twenty four bathrooms. When he had seen a private quidditch field Malfoy's had, he understood that twenty four bathrooms were nothing in comparison with **this**. It was similar to Hogwart's one, but without the huge stands that encircled it. Harry never really liked the game, though he'd heard from his uncle that James Potter was a quidditch prodigy.

The blond boy also showed him their (Malfoy's) huge indoor swimming pool filled with water from some natural hot springs somewhere on the territory of the manor.

After Harry had seen so many examples of wasting money, he was sure that nothing would ever surprise him.

Then, his room was showed to him.

'The best guest room we have' was located on second floor, being '_just two corridors__'_ away from Draco's one.

Beyond the door everything was coloured in black, silver and green. A large four poster bed, with a bedside table on the right, was on the left from the entrance door, the back of it touching the wall. In the far left corner a large desk was placed with very comfortable looking chair by it and the wide high window above.

An oversized wardrobe was placed by the wall on the right. A door on the left from this monstrous piece of furniture led to the bathroom, which was almost as large as the guest room itself. A huge bath the size of a little pool was taking the majority of place.

The water taps on it and the sink were made of gold, while the toilet was looking more like a huge seat with a hole, apparently made there by a mistake. Harry rubbed his temples after seeing all that hypertrophied show of wealth.

"_Really?_" he groaned, noticing that the toilet cap was golden too.

In about an hour, a little house elf apparated in his room with a loud pop. He looked older than Dobby.

"Chvan is here to inform Harry Potter that dinner is ready and Master and Mistress await him in the Dining Room, sir." the grey-skinned elf told him, giving him a respectful bow.

"Thank you, Chvan. I'll be there right away" Harry responded with kind smile.

The little creature was shocked that the great Boy-Who-Lived was so polite with him. His already impossibly huge eyes opened even wider, in utter surprise, achieving unachievable.

"Y-y-you are t-t-too k-kind, s-sir!" Chvan stuttered and quickly disappeared with very loud 'pop'.

Harry put on his best dress robes, which were coloured emerald with platinum curves, charmed by him to snake around the fabric.

Draco was waiting for him behind the door. He examined the clothes his friend chose to wear.

"Nice robes, four-eyes." he complimented him.

The blond was dressed in black robes, whose high-quality fabric played on the light, pleasing an observer.

"Acromantula silk? You are such a fancy catch for some social climber girl (... or boy), ponce." Harry teased.

The dining room was a spacious room with high ceiling, a long rectangular table at the centre. Tall steel armour suits were standing by the walls around it, their masks cold and expressionless, like some sort of sentries.

Lucius Malfoy sat at the head of the table, his voluptuous wife by his right side. Enormous black marble fireplace, which took almost one third of the far wall, was roaring with fire about twelve feet behind the man.

"This family certainly likes to display their wealth on any possible opportunity" Harry thought, but didn't roll his eyes – they were too tired by now, with all this constant rolling back.

He sat near them on the left side of the table, one place away from Lucius, politely greeting the host and complimenting lady Malfoy for her beautiful taste in clothes to which she replied with a kind of smile that Harry was certain he could watch for hours. Draco took the place that was opposite to his.

As soon as everyone finally occupied their respective seats, various kind of food appeared on the finest silver dishes. The dishes were so rigorously polished that Harry could clearly see his reflection in any of them.

The family and its guest had quiet dinner then, enjoying delightful food that the house elves of the manor prepared.

After having the most delicious dessert, they started a small talk.

The Malfoy patriarch was very pleased to know that Harry helped his son to study the advanced types of magic, especially occlumency.

"I am glad that you help my son study the mind arts, Harry. In our world – the world of magic – Occlumency is simply essential in any serious situation. From dueling to some sort of questioning – you feel you are and you are stronger when you have such an Ace in the hole." He said, giving a reserved smile to the green-eyed boy.

"Where is your other friend whose name you've never told us, Draco?" Narcissa asked her son.

Malfoy Jr opened his mouth and closed it again, not knowing what to tell his parents. Fortunately for the blond boy, the problem solved on its own – the fireplace roared with green flames for a few seconds and the youngest male scion of Weasley family was spat on the expensive bamboo parquet of the dining room.

"Emm... Hi?" the redhead greeted everyone, being embarrassingly crimson. The Malfoy couple was taken aback – their son second friend was one of the people who they expected the least to see.

They quickly collected themselves though.

The youngest Malfoy was smiling evilly at Ron, while Potter was trying hard to not burst out of laugher.

Ron got the room on the opposite from Harry's one - it was as huge and as rich as Potter's guest room was. The tall boy was actually a little dizzy because of all this expensive stuff that was around him.

Thanks to the miracle that is called group effort, the trio completed their Summer Assignments in mere three days. They spent the rest of it hanging around in the manor grounds and playing a simplified version of quidditch – with Harry and Draco as chasers and Ron as a keeper.

Harry also started teaching them the basics of Occlumency, which was easy for the blond boy, but hard as hell for the redhead, and some of the spells that Dumbledore had taught the green-eyed boy during the first year.

Draco's parents got used to Weasley with time - Narcissa even started thinking that the ginger-haired youth was _cute_, and Lucius, after seeing Ron obliterating the training dummies, conjured by Harry, with 'Bombarda Maxima' and Severing Charm as if he did it every day, started to respect him for being such an exceptionally powerful wizard.

"He is in Slytherin, dear, he must be different from **them**." Mr Blond hair Sr told his wife once when they were alone in the master bedroom, after having an enjoyable... _talk _with her.

Summer reached its final day, preparing to step away to let Autumn take over – on the thirty first of August the three best friends went to the Diagon Alley - the Malfoy couple told them that they were big enough boys to go there alone for a simple shopping, but warned them to not go into the Knockturn.

The absence of adults excited the young boys a lot. This time the alley was nothing special for Harry – he was used to see magic now, and who wouldn't be after seeing it daily for an year? They were nearing Flourish and Blotts when they saw the handsome blond man in his mid-thirties, surrounded by a large crowd of people.

"Who is he?" Harry asked.

"Gilderoy Lockhart." Ron stated in a very bored voice "He is my mom's idol – she's read all his books."

"Which are absolute nonsense, by the way." Draco continued.

"Harry Potter!" the aforementioned man exclaimed, flashing his ideally even snowy-white forty-two teeth "Come! Come here!"

They approached him, and Lockhart shook each one's hand enthusiastically.

"It is so wonderful that you are here! Do you know I'm your new Defence teacher?" he said.

He gifted Harry and his two friends full set of his books each, individually signed already of course.

"Let's take a picture with you and me greeting each other for the Witch Weekly, Harry!" Lockhart exclaimed happily, grabbing the green eyed boy "Smile!"

Harry smiled his most charming smile, mimicking the elder man.

The magical camera flashed glaringly, then again... and again – the blond man took the opportunity to make a photo of him standing with The-Boy-Who-Lived in full. For the next fifteen minutes they had been posing in front of the camera - Harry, being a very confident boy he was didn't shy away. The fangirls were utterly enraptured, screaming in delight. He winked towards them and turned to the blond man, nodding his head.

"See you in the Hogwarts, my boy!" Lockhart said.

"Goodbye, sir." Harry replied.

"You are such an attention seeking brat, Harry", Ron commented.

Draco nodded his head in agreement, putting his own two sickles.

"I know, Ronniekins. But look at this in more optimistic way – we got all these books for free and saved a whole lot of money!" Potter answered.

Ron's face lit positively once the words hit his understanding.

_**AN(05.10.2011/10.05.2011): a little bit of editing here. Three more chapters to revise.. **_


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter Seven: The Second Year._

The colourful trio passed the sobbing, shouting mass of people and entered the vivid-red Express, which engine was exhaling a cloud of steam already.

They once again occupied the first empty compartment they found.

Three friends were having a light conversation, when the compartment door opened, revealing a blonde girl with huge dreamy silver eyes, long hair, which touched her waist, large reddish earrings and a necklace, made of various bottle caps.

The boys were having neutral expressions on their face, when, suddenly Ron exploded in a burst of laugher, pointing at her

"Ahaha! Eeheehee!"

Harry just smiled at her kindly, while Draco was having an internal battle with himself whether to laugh or not – his mouth opened for a second and closed, the more polite side of him winning.

The strange girl greeted them nonchalantly, seeming totally oblivious to their reaction.

"Hello. May I sit with you?" Her voice was gentle and smooth.

Ron stopped laughing, giving Potter a look that dared him to try.

"Of course, sit!" Harry answered, welcoming the girl warmly.

Draco and Ron looked at him as if he was crazy.

"What's your name?"

"Luna Lovegood." she answered and pulled out a magazine, "The Quibbler", and read it, _overturned_.

Potter had seen a lot of strange things in the wizarding world, so he was completely comfortable with it.

"It's a beautiful name. I'm Harry Potter."

She looked at him, not surprised a bit

"I know. I noticed your scar already."

Although she had some problem with her head, she was very cute with her angelic face and petite frame – Harry could bet all his money that she was going to be a stunning young lady in a few years.

Once the Express arrived to the Hogsmeade Station, the trio went to the horseless carriages, while Luna, after saying parting words, went to Hagrid, who was calling all the first years.

* * *

><p>The Great Hall was as majestic as ever. All the students were talking excitedly, awaiting the outcome of the Sorting. The Hat once again prepared a song for everyone to hear.<p>

_I see you read_

_This piece of shit,_

_Still nothing else to do?_

_I hope you'd liked then_

_What I tried to turn HP into._

_Oh no, he won't make his hair long_

_And look like sorta gay._

_And this I pledge, oh, faithful mate_

_HP, in end, will still be straight!_

_Oh no I don't(!) and won't(!) discriminate the gayful lot_

_They poked, poke each other's throat_

_And 'll poke it either way._

_So if you're gay, then, friend, still stay_

_Because on FFN, a period, net there is, _

_Apparently, a lot of your esteemed rainbowish sort._

_Now, back to story, dear friend!_

_So read, review and GO TO BED!_

The Sorting Hat put the firsties to their new 'Families', most notably, Luna in Ravenclaw and Ron's little cute sister to Gryffindor.

Dumbledore gave his welcoming speech and wished everyone good appetite.

"I want to introduce the new professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts and very famous wizard indeed to you – Gilderoy Lockhart!"

The old wizard clapped enthusiastically, letting Lockhart speak.

The blond professor stood up and flashed his most charming smile.

"Thank you. Thank you! It's an honour to teach such an important subject to the newest generation of wizards! And I promise you that as long as I'm here, in Hogwarts, nothing bad will happen to you – I give you my word on that!."

The majority of the school's female population (and some guys too) were screaming in delight, some of them even fainted out of excitement.

Harry and Ron simultaneously rolled their eyes in irritation, while Draco snorted, seeing his two friends' antics.

The long-awaited food appeared and everyone dug in – the food obviously didn't stay a chance. Everything edible was mercilessly obliterated by the student body rapidly fast.

At the end of the Feast, Dumbledore gave Potter a look that the boy completely understood.

* * *

><p>"Hi, mate! How is your exciting life going?" Harry asked the gargoyle, which, obviously, wasn't as talkative as he was.<p>

After several minutes had passed, the stone statue stepped aside, allowing the boy to enter the headmaster's office.

"Hi, uncle!" he greeted the aged wizard. The boy had very good mood – delicious food that filled his stomach completely ensure it.

"Hello, Harry! How was your Summer Break?" Albus asked.

"Great! The Malfoys are such a bunch of braggarts, by the way. They try to display their wealth in every possible way. Even the toilet caps are made of gold – can you imagine!" the boy spoke enthusiastically.

Dumbledore chuckled at Harry's little tirade.

"You didn't see your family manor before it was obliterated by Voldemort's forces during the War, Harry. It was thrice bigger than the Malfoy's one. But enough of small talk. Do you wish to continue your tutelage?" he asked, his eyes becoming serious in an instant.

"You know the answer, uncle." Harry answered with hard-set look.

"Good. The same time as before then, Harry, every day. This year, I also will show you some of my memories of the time when Voldemort was of your age or a little bit older - you must know your enemies better than your friends, Harry. It is a very simple fact of life, but its simplicity doesn't make it unimportant. Now go, my boy. I'm sure young misters Malfoy and Weasley are waiting for you in your common room. Have a good night."

"Goodnight, uncle." Harry left.

* * *

><p>Their new dorms were as good as their old ones were, but a little bit more spacious. After making themselves comfortable, the second year slytherin boys wished each other goodnight and fell asleep.<p>

The next day, which was Wednesday, found the trio having their breakfast – they all were without even a drop of sleep in their eyes. The youngest Weasley gave Harry strange looks here and there, which made Harry look at Ron, worried that his friend would really kill him. The redhead gave him an evil smile.

"Look, Harry, it seems you have a _couple _of fan girls now!" Draco teased, nodding his head towards Daphne, who sent murderous looks to Ginny

"You have a few _fan boys _too. Look how this Creevy guy is staring at you." Ron howled with laugher, noticing the gryffindor boy who looked in sheer awe at The-Boy-Who-Lived.

"Go to hell, morons." Harry mumbled, shuffling his oatmeal with the golden spoon.

After stuffing their stomachs, they took their timetables from professor Snape and proceeded to their lessons - double astronomy and double charms.

"I wonder how our professors can teach all seven years if there are so few of them." Harry said.

"You really don't know?" Draco asked with a fake shocked expression.

"No, of course I know, dunderhead, I just wanted to hear your annoying girlish voice once more!" Harry retorted.

"You flatter me with your compliment, Harry."

Malfoy continued

"They have time turners that allow them to be in a few places at once, also they make a wizard's oath to not use it for their personal gains – you know, not to screw up the stream of time and all." the blond boy lectured.

"REALLY?" Harry and Ron asked simultaneously.

"Of course not, you idiots – I'm just joking. Did you really ate such rubbish?" Draco said, looking at his two friends incredulously.

"From the third year and upwards they have electives and go to their usual lessons after the lunch. Also, our year is _special_, my friends"

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Because _you _are in this year, stupid. And my father and Longbottom's granny are members of the Board of Governors. And Susan Bones' aunt is the head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I told you, sometimes, I mean, most of the time, it sucks to be from an ordinary family. Such a pity..."

* * *

><p>In the evening Harry once again went to his 'extracurricular' studies, or as he called them himself – his 'uncle time'.<p>

Albus already awaited him there with a pensieve on his table.

Harry watched how his much younger mentor told an eleven year old boy named Tom Riddle that he was a wizard, and, after the latter didn't believe, set Tom's cabinet on fire with a swish of his wand and snuffed it out after a second. The boy was amazed by it, finally believing the old man. Tom told the old man that he always knew he was different: he made animals obey him and, if he didn't get things his way, he bullied his peers by making strange things happen to them. The boy cold ruthlessness and violence already showed signs – in eleven years, for Merlin's sake!

"He was such a tosser, even when he was younger than I am now." Harry stated.

Dumbledore chuckled

"Indeed, my boy. While I, myself, don't use such words usually, there is no other way to describe Voldemort better than you did right now. Let me show you some very rare magical practice now, young man."

"Are you going to show me how to do magic wandlessly, uncle?" Potter asked excitedly.

"My boy, there is no such nonsense as 'wandless' magic. Also there are no magic staffs of tremendous power or potions that make you invincible or goblins that become your friends and make you ridiculously powerful with some secret rituals in a matter of weeks." Dumbledore stated matter-of-factly

"But there _is _one practice that not so many people know about, or, it's better say, know how to use. Also, not all of those, who do know, have enough magical power."

"Tell me already, uncle" Harry demanded with fake annoyance in his voice.

"The Time magic, Harry. How do you think I'm so unnaturally fast sometimes in battle? Natural speed? Yes of course there is some still in this ancient body of mine, but not as much as there used to be. Now I must ask you to give me a wizard's oath again to not teach this practice to anybody, my boy. Only to your own protégé, when you'll have one."

Harry swore an oath – such a serious ritual became a mere routine on their lessons.

"Good. This particular branch of the Time magic won't allow you to travel back or forth in time. Instead, it will make you move and think faster, while all opponents around you will be just too sluggish for you, or stop the flow of time completely. The incantation of the first spell is 'Tempus Tardo' and, maybe, you may guess what is the wand movement already yourself?"

"The clock?" Harry guessed sheepishly.

Albus laughed kindly

"Nonsense, my boy. It's a very old spell – do you think the ancient wizards and witches had clocks? The symbol of infinity or the 'eight' lying on its side, if you prefer. Now watch and learn." Dumbledore cast the spell and his movements became a blur.

'Finite' Harry heard Albus saying behind his back and turned around.

"This spell drains a lot on your magical power, so use it wisely. The second one's incantation is 'Strigo Momentum', with a similar wand movement – you draw the same symbol and cross it sharply with diagonal line from upper right to lower left. This spell is even more draining - if I use it for more than half a minute I become dizzy." Dumbledore said and cast the spell.

'Strigo Momentum'

He disappeared from Harry's sight.

"Did you enjoy the show, my boy." the old wizard asked Harry with twinkle in his eyes, sitting behind his large table. Harry was thunderstruck.

"Now. Do try it yourself, and remember – time is not a toy, play with it very cautiously." Dumbledore warned seriously.

The boy left the headmaster office with a tired but self-satisfied smile that night.

* * *

><p>Harry and his friends entered a classroom where their first DADA lesson was going to be.<p>

The whole room was decorated with various paintings and photos of Lockhart. His smile flashed a hundred times in one second as a result, which annoyed all the boys from Slytherin and Hufflepuff second year.

Then the teacher graced them all with his glorious presence and dazzling smile.

"My name, as you all know, of course, is Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary member of Dark Force Defence League and the five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award." he smiled again, proving that he indeed had charming smile.

All the girls, but Daphne, exhaled dreamily - she ignored the teacher completely, instead sending looks of longing towards Harry here and there subtly. Harry of course was completely oblivious to it, because she sat two desks behind him.

Zabini and Nott, knowing about a little drama in their own House, were having a friendly chat, trying to predict when she was going to approach Harry and confess.

"A year!" Blaise whispered to his best mate.

"Are you joking? About five and a half years, right before we grad..." Ted stopped speaking abruptly.

"What are you talking about so excitedly, worms? If I hear you again discussing my life I'll castrate both of you and make you choke on your own pathetic peckers" she threatened them.

They both nodded, obviously scared of her. Damn, who wasn't?

"Why did you talk so loudly?" the friends started to argue.

The lesson was boring – Lockhart made them do the quiz, which asked some idiotic questions, e.g. 'What's my favourite colour and in which book I mentioned it?' Harry answered as sarcastically as possible, with slytherin boys following his example.

* * *

><p>The time was passing, whilst Harry and his two best mates were becoming stronger and stronger with every passing hour. Potter practised his Time magic spells rigorously and his efforts gave him their first fruits – he could keep up his acceleration spell for about twenty seconds, but he still couldn't stop the time flow for more than a couple of seconds.<p>

They were approached by Hermione in the library on first Saturday of October – the girl boldly occupied a spare stool behind their table, seeming to await an inevitable question from them. Draco gave her a questioning gaze.

"Do you need something, Granger?" he asked.

"Hello to you too, Draco." she greeted him coldly, her frigid stare making the blond shiver a bit.

Then, Harry, being the most observant, noticed that her eyes were, instead of warm brown like chocolate, fiery orange. He gasped.

"Hermione, how frequently have you used the fiendfyre? Are you stupid? If somebody knowledgeable enough will notice the colour of your eyes, you'll be thrown in the Azkaban faster than you say 'Screw you, Potter'" he whispered to her, genuinely worried for the girl that, while sometimes annoyed him a lot, was no stranger to him after the Stone Incident.

She looked at him, surprised that someone was actually worried about her. It warmed her a lot.

"Don't worry, Harry – I've ordered brown coloured contact lenses already. I've sat here with you three to ask a question - is it OK if I join your little study group?"

Harry smiled friendly and started to talk

"Of course it's..."

"Not OK", Ron interrupted him and continued

"Look, mate, she is a frigging pyromaniac, who doesn't see any difference in frying something and _someone_! I say, let's incarcerate her, put in reinforced box and send her to Saint Mungo!" he exclaimed, pointing at her accusingly.

"And also, let's not forget to put that Lovegood girl inside too – it's hard to tell who, of two of them, is more crazy." Draco added.

Harry looked at his friends incredulously.

"Are you serious?" Hermione said disbelievingly, being on the verge of tears by that moment.

Draco gave high five to Ron and they started to roll, laughing.

"Very funny guys." Potter commented with a stone expression, but a smile cracked his face in a second.

"You are in, Granger. Although I don't like you at all, I understand that you can be a very useful addition to our company. Just remember not to fry us, OK?" Malfoy said.

She gave them all a brilliant smile, nodding enthusiastically.

"OK!"

Draco was right – she was a very good addition to their company, bringing in logical thinking, deep analysis and _fire_. Harry wondered not just once how she could be such a mixture, but decided finally to leave it be.

When they finally left the library after a long study session, it was late in the evening.

* * *

><p>The Halloween feast was as good as it usually was. After it finished, the trio decided to have a little walk in the corridors. They were passing the one on the second floor, when Ron suddenly shouted, pointing to something<p>

"Look! There is something written in blood on the wall!"

Indeed, on the wall between two windows there was writing in sticky and red liquid - '_THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. __ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, __BEWARE'._It shimmered in the darkness of the corridor, which was lit by the torches and a little bit of light from the outside.

The boys subtly started snorting, which in a moment turned into a full blown laugher.

"I would really like to see how this 'Heir' is going to kill the muggleborns and half-bloods without the monster." Harry said, drying his eyes with his green plaid wrap.

* * *

><p>"I have an idea guys – I must tell something to my uncle, so see you later!" he said and ran to the headmaster's office.<p>

"Hello, my boy! We already had a lesson today, so there is for sure something else that you wish to talk about." Dumbledore asked his protégé.

"Uncle, do you know about the writing on the wall in corridor, second floor?" the old wizard shook his head, gesturing for Harry to continue speaking "It warns the enemies of the 'Heir' that the Slytherin's Chamber has been opened again. I suggest, uncle, that we do something equally elegant and funny..."

He started to explain his plan to Albus, whose eyes began to twinkle madly.

* * *

><p>Ginny Weasley was in pain. After she understood that the diary she found abandoned on the ground near the Flourish and Blott's had its own mind and soul she was so excited, having now a faithful ear to listen all the silly nonsense she was telling it. Her crush on Harry Potter, her worries about not being good enough student – the list could go on for hours.<p>

But then, she started to have the memory lapses, being in her common room first, and suddenly finding herself in some empty corridor or classroom. Once she even got herself in the Myrtle's bathroom this way! So she became suspicious, but then the blasted diary, or, Tom, as it called itself, made her feel pain when it asked her for taking control over her body for a few hours and she denied.

She felt as if she was implanted on a huge roasting-jack and cooked... slowly. Finally she let Tom possess her again.

Tom Riddle didn't have a habit to give up, at all. When he had finally taken control over that little moron, he went straight to the secret entrance of the Chamber. He slid down and after a little bit of walking stood in front of his great ancestor's statue.

This was a long-awaited moment of his triumph. He was almost drunk by that beautiful feeling. Oh, victory was so very sweet...

"_Speak with me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four!" _

The huge mouth opened... and nothing happened. Then he heard a distinct sound of somebody walking, coming from the statue's gob.

He took an offensive stance, ready to obliterate anything that would come from there.

A small ball of light appeared in front of the statue's head and somebody, who was distinctly man, levitated himself to the cold stone floor of the chamber. Riddle scowled, which on Ginny's freckled face didn't look intimidating at all, instead it seemed so... _cute_.

"You! How did you enter the Chamber? You are not of Slytherin blood!" Tom exclaimed.

Dumbledore chuckled.

"Tom, my boy... (heh.. well your mind is a boy's one so I think it's alright to call you a boy..), you are so _predictable_"

He pointed his wand **very fast **on the girl, triggering Expelliarmus-Incarcero contingency, each spell was put there twice, _to be sure_.

Ginny Riddle/Tom Weasly was bound and harmless, but still was sending murderous glares towards the old man with her scarlet eyes.

"Harry, take the basilisk's fang and destroy the diary." Dumbledore instructed.

His protégé complied, taking off his invisibility cloak on his way.

He stopped in front of the huge head of snake.

"Right or left, uncle?"

"Throw a coin, my boy: left is tails, right is heads."

Harry pulled the galleon from his pocket and threw it.

The piece of gold clacked on the stone floor, and Potter seeing which side it was upwards said

"Tails!"

He separated the left fang from the head of the dead monster with severing charm, took it carefully in his right hand and approached the possessed girl.

"See you later, Tommie." Harry said jovially, winking at the girl (or boy?), and, after picking up the diary from the floor, raised his armed hand.

"NOOOO!" Tom Weasley cried, desperation being crystal clear in his voice.

Potter stabbed the cursed diary a few times. The girl's body convulsed in, obviously, ocean and a little sea of pain.

* * *

><p>Whilst all the bedlam was happening in the Chamber of Secrets, one Ginevra Weasley was locked in her own mind. She stood, wearing only her birthday suit, all alone in a place, which was vast, purely white and, evidently, infinite.<p>

She didn't know how long she waited, but, when it seemed to be an eternity, suddenly, a burnt body fell on the floor or earth or... whatever it was. It wasn't burnt too well, apparently, because it started moving its roasted limbs.

The piece of meat exhaled a pathetic moan and Ginny, being such a compassionate cute little girl she was, approached him (Was it him? Yes it was, just look down there!), completely forgetting her state of dress, or the lack of one.

"Hey! Are you alright?"

She abruptly realised how silly her question was – here somebody was laying on the ground, and looking as if he escaped right from Hell - and she was asking if he was Alright! The girl touched his right hand and felt as if her head exploded in a burst of pain. Ginny tried to pull her hand away, but it was completely stuck to the burnt limb.

The pain increased greatly and her eyes started to roll back in agony. In her mind, she was watching Tom's whole life from the first day when he started to sense the world around him to the day when he made his first horcrux, killing somebody in the process. Her consciousness was shut down sharply and fell into oblivion.

* * *

><p>Ginny had awoken in the Infirmary and the first thing she had seen was a worried face of her brother, Ron.<p>

His sad expression was almost broke in half by an appearance of a happy grin and he hugged her desperately.

"Ginny! I was so worried! Why did you never tell me about what this blasted diary was doing to you?"

"Voldemort can be very cunning sometimes, Mr Weasley – he tricked many much older and experienced wizards and witches." Dumbledore stated, appearing from the thin air as it seemed.

He gave her a kind grandfatherly smile, which she returned weakly.

"Hello, Ginny, I see you recuperated a bit already." her long-time crush said, appearing out of nowhere as his mentor did before him.

"We, I mean myself and Harry, just wanted to see how you were coping. Now we won't disturb you any more. Mr Weasley, I must ask you to leave too – your sister needs a very good rest." They went wherever they went, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She suddenly remembered _everything_. Oh well...

Ginny found her wand on a bedside table and grabbed it. She conjured a feet by feet mirror, which floated in the air above front of her face.

"M-m-erlin" she stuttered.

Freckles disappeared, her irises became ruby red instead of brown, her features became sharper and more pronounced. Her hair, which used to be ginger, turned crimson, almost black, in colour. She dismissed the mirror and lay still on the bed, analysing everything that happened to her recently.

She was feeling intoxicating, burning power inside herself – Ginny understood at that moment just how much Voldemort was more powerful than some ordinary wizard or witch.

* * *

><p>At this very same moment, Harry and Albus were having their own discussion in the headmaster's office.<p>

"Uncle, have you seen her eyes!" Harry asked.

He sat on the chair in front of the headmaster's table.

"Yes, I have, my boy. It seems that her soul merged with Voldemort's soul shard, making two consciousnesses become one... no it's not right... Her consciousness is still her own – I checked it with a light Legilimency probe, but she does have knowledge and skill of sixteen year old Tom Riddle. With some of his traits too, I'm sure."

Albus explained to his protégé. Harry snorted.

"So she's what? Ginevramort? Voldegin?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled a bit.

"No, Harry. She is still Ginny Weasley, although she is very knowledgeable in dark arts now and a lot more powerful magically." The old man stated.

"Great. Still she's another splinter in my bum." Harry complained.

"Not only yours, but mine too, Harry"

* * *

><p>"Have you seen it? They've opened a duelling club!" Ron shouted excitedly to his two friends.<p>

"Oh, really? Who's the instructor?" Harry asked, full of suspiciousness.

"Lockhart" Draco told him, looking bored.

"And I truly like circus, especially with the World-Class star! Let's sign in." Ron said with a smile.

The club took residence in the Great Hall on Saturday evening. All its tables and benches were moved aside and a large podium was transfigured at the centre. There, Gilderoy Lockhart and Severus Snape stood, the latter, obviously, annoyed by the presence of the former, if the scowl on potion master's face wasn't out of the pain in his stomach.

When the trio came in, the hall was already crowded with excited students. Lockhart started his welcoming speech, flashing his trademark smile to the students of Hogwarts.

"Welcome to the first meeting of the Duelling Club! You, of course already know who I am and that I will be your instructor here. Our esteemed professor Snape kindly accepted the position of my assistant!"

Snape sent Gilderoy a glare that promised _pain_, which Lockhart ignored, continuing his talking.

"Now! We are going to make a demonstrative duel for you, but don't you worry, your dear professor will still stay among the living when I obliterate him!"

Severus now was too calm. Harry knew by now that the pompous blond dunderhead would be in a world of pain in mere moment.

"The rules?" Snape snarled.

"No unforgivables and stop by the first blood." the narcissistic blond replied.

Potter hoped that Lockhart wrote his death wish.

"So, on three?"

Snape nodded his head slightly, standing in offensive stance.

"Harry, if you will?", 'instructor' asked.

The boy counted loudly

"One, two... THREE!"

'Expelliarmus!' Snape cast a disarming charm, which Lockhart dodged completely by luck, accidentally stepping aside.

'Stupefy!' the blond answered with a weak looking stunner, which Snape blocked with a precise 'Protego'

By that moment, Snape was furious.

'Sectumsempra!' he snarled, making five slashing movements with his wand.

Five long deep wounds appeared on Lockhart's chest as if he was slashed by an invisible sword. He fell on the ground, losing his wand out of Snape's 'Expelliarmus', a pool of blood filling under him.

Snape approached him slowly.

"Pack your things, clown, the next time I see you I will cut off your empty head and turn it into a potion-brewing cauldron." Lockhart looked at him, obviously scared shitless and nodded fast.

Severus cast 'Vulnera Sanentur' a few times, the spell healed all the wounds on the body of pathetic blond.

"You will have scars to remind you about your arrogance, idiot. Now go away before I finished you off!"

Gilderoy stood up and ran away as fast as his legs could move him.

The student body was awed. Then the slytherins started to cheer for their head of house.

Lockhart packed his things and left the school without even noticing Dumbledore about his leave during the same day.

Snape became an interim DADA teacher until the end of the school year – his old dream coming true. The rest of it was spent by Harry and company without any adventures, the Christmas was all spent as the previous one, and, after finishing his final exams, he became the top student in his year once again, making Severus and Dumbledore proud.

_**AN(05.10.2011/10.05.2011): Two more and the revision of the Prologue is complete. I will probably post the Chapter 14 on Saturday.**_


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter Eight: A Redhead Fiesta. (Dale! Dale!)_

"No! I don't" Ron exclaimed.

The trio were sitting in their usual compartment of the Hogwarts Express, hotly arguing.

"Yes, you do." Draco teased the tall boy, a sly smirk on his face.

"No!"

"Yes."

"No, you idiot!"

"Says the idiot. YES."

Harry was moving his head from one to another, smiling.

"Enough, guys. Ron, you constantly have been commenting on her – '_Hah! This stupid weirdo?.. Look how this Lovegood girl is eating with two knifes!.. -_ so I must agree with Draco here."

"You too (Brutus)? I swear, I don't like the girl!" the redhead said, but his reddened ears told the whole way different story.

A door to their compartment opened slowly.

"You don't what, Ronald?" the dreamy voice asked.

Weasley blushed even more.

"He fancies you, Luna" Harry answered, looking at the boy in question.

Ron sent Potter a glare, which explained everything he thought about the boy in glasses and his blond friend.

The huge silver eyes of the girl became even wider than before for a second, showing her surprise, but then she quickly turned into her nonchalant herself again.

"Ronald, you just should have told me. I too think you are very cute, especially now – this blush suits your magnificent red hair.." she said, sitting _very close _to him and giving him a chaste kiss on his red cheek.

The door opened again.

"What's the matter, guys?" Hermione asked, sitting next to Luna and pulling out a book to read.

Harry and Draco couldn't take any more – they fell on the floor and started rolling on it, howling with laugher.

Long story short, one Ronald Billius Weasley had had the most embarrassing Express trip ever.

* * *

><p>They stepped their feet on the Platform Nine And Three-Quarters and bid each other farewell. Harry and Ron approached the Weasley's family.<p>

"Hello, Mr and Mrs Weasley!" Potter warmly greeted the elder couple of redheads.

The family's matriarch embraced both boys in a bone-crushing hug, Ginny, as she did always since the Chamber event, was giving Harry a very strange look, which scared Harry a bit, because – Hello! Her eyes were crimson, for Merlin's sake!

"Hello, my dears! I and my husband - We are so happy that you have accepted our invitation to spend this summer break in our household. Isn't your third friend coming too?"

She asked the question with a little bit tense look in her eyes.

"No, Mrs Weasley, his parents didn't allow him – said something about having some important family business." Harry replied, saddened a little that his another friend couldn't spend this Summer with him and Ron.

All faces of Weasley family members, but Ron's, lit happily – evidently his reply lifted a lot of stress from their minds.

"Umm... Well, take each other's hands – we will side-along apparate to our The Burrow in a moment." Harry's face became green – apparation, again, eww.

* * *

><p>No, definitely, the Weasley Family Household wasn't Malfoy Manor, but the old high and hove down house, which still hadn't crumbled just because of the strength of magic that reinforced the building, had something the beautiful manor would never have – it emitted the feeling of homeliness.<p>

Harry was told that he was going to share a room with Ron, so the green-eyed boy levitated their luggage there with a click of his wand.

"Harry! You aren't allowed to use your magic during the holidays!" Molly Weasley exclaimed, looking genuinely worried that a warning letter from the ministry would come.

"Don't you worry, Mrs Weasley, most of the time, it's good to be the protégé of Chief Warlock. By the way, your children may use it as well – I asked my uncle and he agreed to make an exception for them too." he said, extinguishing her worry.

Molly wasn't sure how she should react – it was so great that her children could improve their magic during the break, but the same fact made her feel the dread: nothing stopped her twin sons from making everyone's life hell now!

Fred and George stood by Harry's sides and put right and left hands respectably on his shoulders.

"Harry, you are our bestest friend!" one of them said and another continued

"Our Merlin!"

"Our Idol!"

"If you need anything – just ask!"

Ginny approached him subtly from behind and gave him a nice hug, snaking her elegant hands with long thin fingers on his chest.

"Thank you, my hero..." she purred.

She kissed his neck gently. Harry's cheeks blushed fiery red and he looked at her brothers, awaiting his swift death.

But Ron and his elder brothers didn't look angry or surprised at all – after Harry and Dumbledore saved their little sister from the cursed diary, Weasleys were grateful for that and, in fact, wanted Harry and Ginny to become a couple in time.

"Khem! My girl, don't embarrass our guest!"Arthur Weasley interrupted her.

Once Ginny had released Harry, Percy neared him and extended his hand.

"Thank you, Harold. This will allow my studies progress as rapidly during the holidays as in the Hogwarts. I won't forget that, I promise." he said and shook Harry's hand firmly.

The twins and Ron simultaneously rolled their eyes – Percy was such... Percy!

* * *

><p>The first three weeks of Summer Holidays were spent by Ron and Harry in doing their homework and lazing around, doing absolutely nothing.<p>

Then, on the twentieth of July, Tuesday, when all inhabitants of the Burrow but Harry Ginny and Ron, were out, somebody knocked on the entrance door.

Potter, being the closest, opened it.

Luna Lovegood was standing right in front of him.

"Hello, Harry. It's nice to see you here in our village. Where's Ronald?" she told him, giving gim an enigmatic smile.

Harry shook his head, chuckling, and called his friend loudly.

"Ro-o-o-on! There is somebody who wants to see you!"

"Coming!" Ron shouted back and the heavy steps from the second floor were heard by our hero. The redhead passed Harry and froze in his place in surprise. A distinct blush covered his cheeks, ears and neck.

"H-hello, L-luna." he stuttered.

"Hi, Ronald. Would you like to have a walk with me?" she asked the redhead, flashing him her brilliant smile.

Ron blushed even _more_

"S-s-sorry, b-but I h-have many th-things t-to..."

"To hell with you, Ronniekins!" Harry exclaimed and bumped him out, closing the door with ten different spells.

"Have a nice day, guys!" he shouted through the door to the freshly baked pair, grinning slyly.

But his grin was obliterated from his face and he sharply spun around, when he realized that only himself and...

Ginny stood very close to him - so close that their noses almost brushed. Her face had become different – instead of the cute-girl-from-the-next-house features, they were elegant.. perfect, but her large crimson, blood red, eyes were making Harry freak out.

"So, we are all alone now..."

Harry gulped – he was so _screwed_.

"Harry... don't be so shy..." she crooned, embracing him in a very tight hug, which made him understand that not only her face had changed _a lot_

"We have _the whole day _just for us two."

"G-g-ginny, w-wait!" he tried to escape, but it made her squeeze the boy with unnaturally great strength.

The beautiful redhead put her elegant long index finger on his lips soothingly.

"Shhhh..." She pulled his head towards hers with her right hand, gripping his crotch firmly with her left one.

Ginny used to be much shorter than Harry before, but, as he realized suddenly, she was towering above him now. He fancied tall girls so it wasn't a problem for him.

The youngest Weasley kissed him affectionately: whilst Harry was very sloppy in the art of kissing, Ginny, was not, having the experience of sixteen year old Tom who seduced a lot of girls and women for his own gains. She didn't mind, though – the fact of who was kissing her tripled her sensations.

"It is only the beginning of our love marathon, Harry..." she whispered in his ear, making him smile nervously.

"Yeah" Potter thought "I think I have a new Patronus memory!"

_**AN(05.10.2011/10.05.2011): I know this chapter is the shortest one, but in this specific case, it's its plus, no? I solemnly swear to finish revising chapter Nine this night! **_


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter Nine: The Soulsuckers._

The whole Hogwarts Express was fully occupied, because the new wave of first years was huge – quite an evidence of increase in wizarding children birth rate.

Draco was very happy to see his two best friends after a long break, but he completely wasn't understanding why the hell his friends had so stupid expressions:

A goofy smile was plastered on Ron's face – obviously Luna did something to improve his mood, and the face of Potter mirrored the redhead's one.

The trio finally found an almost empty compartment with sleeping man inside, after scouring the entire Express. He seemed to be around the age of Snape, dressed in some cheap ragged grey robes that were patched here and there.

They made themselves comfortable, sitting on the opposite side of the compartment and chatting - quietly to not wake up the man.

The train started to move, emitting a lot of sound, but the stranger was sleeping so deeply, apparently tired, that he didn't care at all.

A few hours had passed, when the Express abruptly stopped and the window and door of the compartment started covering in a thick layer rime.

"What the heck!" Ron exclaimed

He was pointing to the window, beyond which hundreds of humanoid-like creatures, which were cloaked in ragged hooded robes, their flesh black rotten and covered in scabs, were floating in the air around the train.

"Dementors? What are _they_ doing here?" Harry asked a rhetorical question.

Being very good in Occlumency, they weren't affected so much by the dementor's malevolent aura of despair, but it still made them very uncomfortable and the cold irritatet them.

The door to their compartment opened slowly, revealing a large cloaked figure behind it.

'Expecto Patronum!' Harry cast the spell loudly, revealing a large spectral stag, which drove the foul creature away. It (the stag) started chasing dementors – the terrific guards of Azkaban ran away, wailing in utter horror.

The stranger suddenly woke up, looking around still half-asleep.

"Hhm.. What! Dementors! We all need to..."

His eyes widened when he saw the green-eyed boy.

"Harry?" he asked, shocked as if he saw a ghost.

"Sir, do I know you?" Harry replied dumbly with his own question.

Instead of answering the man embraced Potter in a tight hug, tears of joy in his eyes.

"Harry! It's you! You've grown up so much!"

The boy froze.

"Who are you, sir?"

The stranger looked into his eyes.

"Why, I'm Remus Lupin! Me and your father, with Peter Pettigrew and... Sirius Black", he spat the last name, "were the best friends in Hogwarts!"

The train started to move again.

For the rest of the trip Remus told Harry and his friends stories about the Marauders, as the man and his school friends called themselves.

* * *

><p>The Sorting again started with song.<p>

_Hello, my friends!_

_Is there a common problem in your heads?_

_Please skip this silly piece of rhyme,_

_Go back to story, then - BED TIME!_

_You still insist _

_And want new twist in current year too!_

_There won't be spoilers in this rime, _

_So, greedy reader, shoo!_

The Great Hall burst in ovations and, once they ceased, the Hat put first years in their new Houses.

The Welcoming Feast started as soon as Dumbledore gave his speech.

".. A very dangerous criminal, Sirius Black, escaped the prison so our great ministry enhanced Hogwarts' defences by sending some of Azkaban's dementors to guard its territory. I warn all of you to not walk on the school grounds after the curfew to avoid any unfortunate encounters with them, or, especially, with Black."

"But enough of sad news! Allow me to introduce the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor to you - Remus Lupin!"

The student population applauded, Harry being the most enthusiastic one. Aforementioned professor stood up, bowed to the crowd and sat again.

"Let the Welcoming Feast BEGIN!" the headmaster exclaimed, clapping dramatically his hands.

The lessons started on the next day, which was Thursday by the way.

* * *

><p>What was very special, though, about the third year that it was the time for students to choose elective courses. Two members of the Trio were trying to reason with their redhead friend.<p>

"NO! I won't take Arithmancy and Ancient Runes!" Ron exclaimed in the Great Hall, getting the attention of the whole student body.

"YES, you will, Ronniekins." Harry said.

Snape chose right that moment to pass by the Slytherin table towards the Staff one.

"Professor Snape! Me, Harry and Ronald wish to take Ancient Runes and Arithmancy as our elective classes!" Draco called the elder man.

Severus turned to them.

"Well, I will inform Septima and Bathsheda then, also I don't quite understand why Mr Weasley chose them too..." he told.

Their head of the house continued walking to his destination.

"There is no turning back now, mate." Harry said. He and Draco smiled evilly at Weasley.

Ron hit the table with his head a few times in pure irritation.

"I hate you both so much, morons." he muttered.

* * *

><p>The most notable lesson of the first week in school they had had was double Defence with gryffindors on Friday after lunch.<p>

Professor Lupin showed them the Boggart – a shape-shifting creature, which turned it looks in nearest person's greatest fear.

The students approached it one by one and practised 'Riddikulus' charm on it, making it turn in a funny image of their fears.

Some of the children had very stupid fears: Neville had professor Snape, or Hermione was afraid of McGonagall telling her that she utterly failed academically, or Draco who saw his father telling him that he disowned him.

Some were somewhat terrible as Ron's monstrous spider was, or Seamus' banshee.

Harry was the last to near the mimic.

The boggart took the form of a miserable old man with dull green eyes, dressed in some pathetic rags, looking around fearfully, a distinct lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

"I'm pathetic" the man repeated again and again.

"No..." Harry whispered, completely frozen in his place.

Remus had stood in between Harry and the boggart.

The creature shifted into a full moon.

'Riddikulus!'

The moon became a cockroach, which he levitated into the cabinet, imprisoning it there.

"The lesson is finished. You may leave." he half-whispered.

* * *

><p>"I see... NO! I won't tell you what I've seen!" professor Trelawney exclaimed dramatically, after examining Harry's cup with leaves on the bottom.<p>

"What have you seen, professor?" the green-eyed boy asked in a completely bored tone.

"A GRIM! I'm so sorry to bring such sad news, but it's a death omen, my dear boy!" All the slytherins rolled their eyes at her antics.

"Frigging old dragonfly" Ron muttered, making all the third years in the class snicker.

* * *

><p>In the morning of November First, Monday, Dumbledore announced that this week's Saturday students would be allowed to go to the Hogsmeade Village – all students from third year and higher could go. That made the student body explode in murmurs of approval.<p>

The enigmatic blonde approached one Ronald Weasley immediately after the announcement was made.

"Ronald, don't you want to tell me something" she asked him, her eyes not leaving him – the girl wasn't blinking at all and that fact made her even more not of this world.

Attention of the whole Great Hall was turned to the pair.

"Luna, you are still in your second year – you can't go!" the redhead tried to reason with her.

"Almost true, my sweet orange pie, but my father wrote a special permission that allows me to go there if I'm escorted specifically by you." she said.

Luna lovingly putting a stray lock of his hair behind his ear, which was as red as its left counterpart.

"Th-then I g-guess I'll go with you." he told her.

"Good, see you on Saturday, my sweet muffin." Luna said, kissing him on his cheek and leaving after that.

All the occupants of Slytherin table howled in laugher and Ron's brothers grinned at him.

Harry looked at the Gryffindor table, where Ginny was sitting. She gave him a brilliant smile and a wink, which he returned back shyly. Daphne, who had been the witness of whole exchange, seemed as if she swallowed a monthly dose of Dumbledore's lemon sherbets at once.

Draco was approached by embarrassed Hermione on their way back to the common room. She dragged him by hand a little bit behind, cast a sound-distortion ward around them, and stuttered something to him. He seemed shocked, but after a minute of silently looking her in the eyes, nodded in agreement. They went the opposite ways.

He caught up with his mates.

"What did the pyromaniac want?" Ron asked.

"She suggested going together to the Hogsmeade..." he answered calmly.

"And?" Harry questioned.

"I agreed."

"I thought the scion of the Noble House of Malfoy would never lower himself to go on a date with muggleborn witch." Ron said.

"Says the guy who dates the second strangest person in all the Hogwarts", Draco parried with a snort and continued

"Harry, are you going too?"

"No, guys. On Saturday I must go to uncle, and then to Snape - I'll be waiting for you in the dorms after." Harry answered light-heartedly.

"You are a maniac too! Maybe you, instead of Draco, should go with Hermione? Whatever." Ron said sadly, but suddenly his face lit up,

"BUT. I know for sure that you won't be all alone with first and second years..."

"Who else is staying, Ron?" Draco played along, asking the question too excitedly.

"Can't you guess, mate? First name starts on 'D', ends on 'E' with 'A', 'P', 'H', 'N' in the middle?" Ron shouted.

Draco faked an expression of thinking through deeply, then he seemed as if a realization struck him

"Daphne? As **the** Daphne Greengrass?"

"And you've won one million galleons!" the redhead exclaimed, gesticulating over-dramatically.

Harry hid his face in hands.

"Sometimes, I really hate you, guys..." he muttered.

* * *

><p>"My boy, we haven't been discussing how things are going on your personal front for so long. How things are with Ms Greengrass?" Dumbledore asked Harry after they finished their lesson on Saturday.<p>

The boy groaned in annoyance

"Not you too, uncle!"

* * *

><p>It was about five pm - the first and second years all were wandering somewhere outside, while the higher years were still lazing around in Hogsmeade. Daphne sat alone in the common room near the fireplace, reading a book.<p>

At least, she was pretending to read one.

The object of her thoughts entered and sat on the chair next to hers and closed his eyes pleasurably – he obviously was tired. Potter suddenly opened his eyes, understanding just who was sitting next to him.

"Hello, Harry." she greeted him softly.

"Hi." he answered dryly.

The silence in the common room became nearly tangible.

They had been sitting like that for a few minutes, when Daphne started to speak

"So, mm... Harry, how are you?"

"Fine, thanks."

"Why didn't you go to Hogsmeade?"

"I was busy"

"Oh... May I ask you a question?"

"You already did"

She was hurt by his rude behaviour.

Harry was seeing an unthinkable right in front of him – 'crazy bitch' of Slytherin house, looking like some sort of kitten that had been hit, hard, with an iron stick, a pointy one.

It melted his cold attitude towards her and warmed up some of his old interest inside.

"Ask."

She looked like the Christmas came two months earlier and she received a thousand and one gift.

"Would you like to go to the kitchens with me?"

Harry looked surprised – he didn't expect such turn of things at all.

"You know where they are? ... Alright, let's go."

He helped her to get up and they simply went there.

Hogwarts Kitchens were located in the basement, right under the Great Hall. The only barrier between them and the rest of Hogwarts was a large painting with a bowl of fruits.

Daphne tickled a pear, which, after bursting in a feat of giggling, transformed into a door knob.

Harry was shocked to see a vast room, similar to the Great Hall with four large and one small table, right under their counterparts from the Hall above. There were more than a hundred house elves, which stopped doing their routines and looked at the pair of slytherins.

One of the elves approached them and exclaimed happily

"Hello, great Harry Potter, sir and Miss Greengrass! Would you like to eat something? Blabber is my name."

Harry smiled kindly

"Hi, Blabber. Yes, my friend."

"Come with me then!" the over-active elf told them and seated them behind a small table next to each other.

It almost crumbled out of amount of various foods on it: meat, chicken, fish, vegetables, fruits, everything fried or boiled or steamed or...

The pair had had a silent dinner, enjoying each other company.

As soon as they finished, they stood up.

"Thank you for showing me the Kitchens, Daphne. It was a great experience. Now. I am sure you want to ask me something." Harry said.

She looked shyly at him - it looked cute, he guessed, but Harry definitely preferred to see her scowling or grinning in an evil way or... just being her unbearable self, not the shy girl that was sitting in front of him.

"Are you and Ginny a couple?" she asked finally.

Harry looked at her incredulously.

"Are they all mad?" he thought.

"No, of course not. We are just very good friends after I saved her from the Chamber." he answered, adding in his mind "with a lot of benefits..."

She seemed very satisfied with his answer.

"I see. Shall we go back?" The brunette girl asked.

"Ok, lead the way."

They left the Kitchens, not hurrying to be in their common room at all.

* * *

><p>When they passed a door that led into a little cupboard, she suddenly grabbed his hand and dragged him inside, closing and silencing it with a few spells.<p>

There she had been snogging him senseless for a couple of hours. The girl was absolutely different from Ginny – while the beautiful redhead was slow and gentle though with a firm grip, Daphne was a harsh blur of desire and lust. She lacked the experience the Weasley girl had, but she compensated it completely by her pure enthusiasm and love of experimenting.

When they finished, she kissed him hungrily again, looked in his eyes and left wordlessly. Harry had a lot of bruises and scratches all over himself, but he didn't mind at all, because he could deal with them later with magic.

Harry returned to the common room, smiling stupidly. He had seen his two best friends, which were in the same state, and approached them.

"I saw Daphne entering a few minutes before you did. She looked like a cat that ate a can of sour cream. She somehow reminded me of Luna with her dreamy gaze..." Draco said.

Ron nodded his head, acknowledging what the blond boy said.

"Don't know what you are talking about..." Potter answered in a sing-song voice, sitting in an empty chair and closing his eyes, being completely content with his day.

* * *

><p>The Christmas Break began, so our trio of friends bid each other's goodbye until the end of it. As usual, Harry stayed in the school, but not him only, though – Daphne made sure he didn't have a boring break.<p>

He gifted "Fifty creative uses of magical fire" book to Hermione, Zonko's hundred galleons gift certificate for each twin, a white Quick-Quotes quill for Percy, Malkin's two hundred galleons certificate for Ginny, and the group photo of him, Ron and Draco together, sitting on chairs in front of the fireplace, talking and laughing, to his best mates.

Harry opened his presents, beginning with a long and thin package. The boy was stunned by what he saw. He received the _best _broom on the market – 'Firebolt' was proudly engraved on the right side of its glittering handle, whilst on the left was a golden registration number.

It came without any note, so, after initial shock and dancing happily in his dorm room, he decided he would visit Dumbledore and ask the old man to check it.

He received a hair-gel from Ron, along with a luxurious hair-comb from Draco, a one feet and half tall plush replica of himself with an apparent red lipstick mark on its left cheek with a note in its hands that read 'Merry Christmas, Harry!' from Ginny, and a dark green wool sweater from Mrs Weasley, who apparently represented her family.

When he went to the common room, Daphne dragged him into the large seat in front of the fireplace – she had been giving him the best present ever until he was half-dead, tired but happy.

* * *

><p>Dumbledore was checking the broom for almost an hour and ensured the green eyed boy that it was safe. As safe as one with a hundred fifty miles in ten seconds acceleration could be.<p>

The Spring semester was boring for Harry with its routine of studying – the only remarkable thing about it was how quickly it ceased and the finals began.

* * *

><p>On the Divination Final the old dragonfly called them one by one.<p>

After Ron returned, it was Harry's turn. He climbed on the ladder and entered the classroom, which smelled like incense with something else as much utterly annoying, and approached Trelawney, who was sitting by a crystal ball, allegedly seeing something important in it.

"Tell me, Harry, what do you see inside?", she asked, gesturing towards the orb.

Harry faked an expression of complete concentration and, after about five second passed, started feeding her with some stupid nonsense for half an hour, then he pulled an ace from his sleeve.

"I... I see... a... dragon... it is angry... IT LOOKS AT YOU, PROFESSOR, RUN!"

The last part was exclaimed by him with expertly simulated look of fright and shock.

Trelawney actually ate that piece of rubbish – she started to wail and run around the classroom, gesticulating her hands chaotically in panic.

Harry cast a cheering charm on her.

"Calm down, professor. Everything is going to be fine!" he said soothingly.

She looked much better now – the charm must have started working.

"Yes-yes, my boy. It seems as you are an outstandingly talented seer – do be proud, not everyone receive such a gift. And you've done excellent work - I reward you with 'O'!"

She smiled in her usual crazy weird way, but then her face became expressionless and stare empty. It made Harry freak out even more than Ginny's eyes did.

"_The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to re-join his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight ... before midnight ... the servant ... will set out ... to re-join ... his master ..." _She spoke in a grave voice.

When she finished talking, her face changed to normal crazy self again.

"Oh, did you say something, Harry?" she asked him.

He stared at her incredulously.

"No, professor.. May I go?"

"Yes-yes! Don't forget to meditate on every second Tuesday of a month to not lose your gift!" Harry descended from the classroom by ladder as soon as possible.

Ron apparently went to the common room – he was nowhere to be seen.

"Good" Harry thought "No need to explain anything to them now."

* * *

><p>Potter entered the headmaster's office, immediately telling the prophecy he heard from Trelawney to Dumbledore.<p>

The old man had been deep in thoughts for several minutes. Then his gaze - a serious one, without any twinkling - met Harry's.

"We need to check the school grounds, my boy. Look for anything out of place."

He clapped his hands and some strange red spherical light-projection appeared on his desk.

Albus touched something on it and the full volumetric scheme of Hogwarts and its grounds appeared – all the inhabitants were there, the dots with names written above them being their impressions.

Harry didn't have enough time to be awed, so he searched for anything strange. Then he saw a dot 'Percival Weasley' and 'Sirius Black' very close to each other and moving towards the Whomping Willow.

"Uncle! There!" he pointed.

"Excellent, my boy. Fawkes, if you would be so kind?"

The phoenix in question trilled and flew to Albus' shoulder, making all three disappear in a fiery flash of fire.

* * *

><p>Sirius Black, being in his large black dog animagic form, was silently dragging one Percy Weasley through the secret pass between the Whomping Willow and the Shrieking Shack.<p>

The reason he kidnapped the boy was that he had seen the group photo of Harry and Weasley family in their household in the Prophet. More precisely, he had seen a rat on Percy's shoulder, that didn't have one finger on its front paw.

The aforementioned rat currently slept in the pocket of Percy's robe, oblivious to his possible, soon, but not so swift death.

The dog animagus finally brought the unconscious boy into the shack. Sirius reverted back into the man form, took the boy's wand and conjured a small cage.

He subtly put the sleeping rat inside and cast locking and unbreakable charms on the cage, ensuring that the bastard wouldn't run.

"Sirius Black..." the man heard a very familiar voice from behind him.

He instantly turned around and saw nobody but Albus Dumbledore himself. The old wizard was completely calm, but that Sirius wasn't stunned, incarcerated and on his way to receive the Dementor Kiss, was a very good sign for the man with long black filthy mane of hair.

The escaped convict dropped the wand on the wooden floor of the shack and tried to reason with the powerful wizard in front of him.

"Albus, let me explain."

Suddenly, taking off his invisibility cloak, a smaller and younger of James appeared next to Dumbledore. Harry gave Sirius an accusing stare and exclaimed

"You! What do you want to explain? The reasons to sell out my parents? Or maybe you want to feed me the rubbish that you actually regret what you did?"

The boy's tirade was stopped by Albus' hand placed on his shoulder.

"Harry, calm down. You always should try to get all the pieces of mosaic first if you can and only then start firing off the spells. Let Sirius explain."

Black had told them his own version of what happened on Halloween of 1981. To prove his point, he asked Dumbledore to completely isolate the shack.

The old man did as Sirius asked then and the cocoon of violet light appeared around them in twelve feet diameter, which was impossible to pass through from inside.

Black released the rat, which shrieked and tried to escape to no avail. Sirius cast a spell on the rat, reverting it back into a man, although the man still reminded everyone of rat he used to be a moment ago.

Dumbledore gasped in recognition.

"Peter?" he asked disbelievingly.

Peter Pettigrew knew by this moment that he had big problems.

"Mph, what happened? Where am I?" Percy started to wake up.

'Stupefy!' the redhead was swiftly stunned by Harry, who wasn't in a mood to be gentle at the moment.

Sirius and Pettigrew were both escorted by a group of aurors, who were fire-called by the headmaster, to the containing cells in the Ministry.

Albus went with them and had returned in two days with excitingly good news – Sirius was released and completely cleaned from all charges with a very nice compensation and public apology to boot, whilst Peter was nicely put in the highest security level cell, designed specially for animagi, in Azkaban.

Black told Harry by then that he was his godfather and they could live together in his old house in London. Harry felt like Christmas fell on his head three times in a row instantly. One thing was clear for sure - the boy's life would never be the same again.

_The End Of Part One (Prologue.)_

**AN: Hurray! I finished the Prologue! The story pace now will be completely different – much less rushed and more detailed, although I won't describe how slowly, from which angle, on what trajectory, moves Harry's shit wiping hand. I hope you like this 25k prologue, at least a little. I know the Third Year is very rushed, but it's **_**so boring **_**to write about it.**

**AN2: Dear readers, I hope you find edited chapters much easier to read. Thank you for reviewing.**

_**AN(06.10.2011/10.06.2011): as I promised, ladies and gentlemen, there is the ninth and final(yahoo!) revised chapter of the Prologue. NOW I can finally finish Chapter 14(or Five - it depends on how you count).  
><strong>_


	10. Chapter 10

_Part Two: The Tri-Wizard Tournament._

_Chapter One: The Most Ancient and Noble House of Black._

Family... When Harry tried to taste this word on his lips, saying it aloud, it sounded... _strange_? Of course, Dumbledore was in very close relationship with the boy in question and Harry even called him always 'uncle', but the old wizard was more like a mentor, tutor, role model; he looked after Harry and made him feel that he never was alone in this world. On the other hand, his godfather in several weeks became a father-like figure for the young man. Family... became Harry's most favourite word.

Since the day Harry entered the Magical World, he had changed a lot. No, his ambitions didn't lessen, quite the opposite – the grew madly. It wasn't so much his physical appearance too, though he was five feet ten inches now and his face acquired more masculinity. What really changed, though, was his understanding how to get there.

Albus acknowledged his protégé that the Triwizard Tournament was restored, and that this great event would take place in Hogwarts. He did that just a day before Harry left school for Summer Holidays.

_One day before in Hogwarts, the Headmaster's Office_

Dumbledore and Harry enjoyed a nice hot tea, ate lemon-drops, and had a small talk. After about an hour, the old wizard became serious and connected his fingertips on the table. Then, he started talking

"My boy, I must inform you about something, although I was told by our esteemed Minister of Magic not to tell anyone. Do you know what the Triwizard Tournament is?"

"Some old and long-forgotten kind of competition between three great magic schools of Europe? Why? Are they going to start it anew?" Harry guessed.

"You just hit the mark, Harry. And while Mr Fudge and the Tournament Commission are excited by not one but **two **great and important events taking place in Magical Britain, I know that it's very good opportunity for the Dark Lord and his followers to strike." Dumbledore said.

"I understand what you mean, uncle."

"You soon will be fourteen, Harry. I think you are adult enough, so call me Albus, please." Harry's mentor was dead serious.

"Alright, uncle.. I mean, Albus." the boy said.

He felt odd to call the old wizard by name. Harry was hit by realization that he wasn't eleven now and, with time going on, he would carry more and more responsibilities on his shoulders. Though, he didn't brood about it – The-Boy-Who-Lived understood that it was just the natural way of things.

Dumbledore exhaled hardly – Harry only now realized how old his mentor was.

"How old is he? Hundred and ten or something like that?" our hero thought.

"Now, my boy, I think you should fathom how greatly in danger you are going to be. I warded Sirius' family household with Fidelius charm, myself being the secret keeper. Take this."

The old man scribbled a note on a small piece of parchment and gave it to Harry.

"The Black Family House is located on Grimauld Place Number Twelve, London." the green-eyed young man read aloud, feeling by his gut that something changed.

"You know where it is now, Harry. To the next matter then. It is imperative that you are everywhere under, as my old friend likes to exclaim all the time, 'Constant Vigilance!' Especially, during your fourth year here."

Twinkle started returning to Dumbledore's eyes. Fawkes flew to his right shoulder and perched on it. The fiery bird trilled happily and rubbed its head against Albus' cheek. He stroked his familiar gently, saying

"You may go, Harry – I bored you enough with old man's nonsense"

"Bye, Albus."

_Back to London_

Harry stood next to Sirius, looking at what was his new home. The House number Twelve, Grimmauld Place was a tall three-story building with large heavy entrance door and shut windows, but, obviously, it wasn't as pompous as Malfoy Manor, although it didn't make Harry jealous or sad even a bit.

His godfather gestured for him to follow, opened the door and magically lit the candles, which were the only source of light there, revealing a long hallway. It was clearly obvious that nobody took care of this place for the last decade or maybe even two – thick layer of dust and grease covered the floor and furniture; everything was so... decrepit.

"Sirius, when you told me your house was old and not taken care of, I never imagined that it could be _this _bad." Harry said and cast air-freshening spell.

The man had opened his mouth to reply when the dark violet curtains by the far wall abruptly opened, unveiling the portrait of an old woman with grey hair and features that resembled Sirius' ones. It inhaled deeply.

"FILTHY MAGGOTS, HOW DARE YOU TO BREAK INTO **MY **HOUSE! RETURN TO YOUR PILE OF COW FAECES AT ONCE AND NEVER STEP YOU DIRTY FEET ON MY FLOOR AGAIN!" she screamed. She did it so loud that even a banshee would cry bitterly and burst in shame.

"This" Sirius told Harry, pointing toward the portrait, "is my dear mother – Walburga Black. Now you know from whom I inherited such a temper. Thank Merlin, I didn't adopt her idiotic hate for people of _not the purest_ blood."

Harry smiled.

"She is nice. Maybe I should tell my friend Hermione if you know what I mean – she likes to burn stuff with fiendfyre and is _short of flaming material_."

Sirius' eyes lit and he patted him on the shoulder proudly

"That's my boy. There is a lot of things for us to do and so little time to finish everything. I want to tell you something first, though, so let's go find the most suitable place for our talk."

* * *

><p>They entered the dusty Living Room with the Black Family Tapestry on the far wall. A black tree was drawn on it with dark green leaves that contained the name of every family member and his or her miniature portrait – some of them, though, were evidently burnt from it.<p>

Sirius removed the dust with help of several charms here and there and sat on a large sofa by the far wall, the tapestry right above him. It was quite symbolic from Harry's point of view – his godfather was the last member of once fearsome and great magic family.

He was still weedy like a mummy from the film Harry had watched once, but his godson also understood that for someone who spent his last twelve years in the Hell's Magical Britain Branch or Azkaban, as most people called it. The ex-convict gestured for the young man to sit on a big, soft and cushy chair on the opposite from the sofa.

Harry sat on the edge of the chair and started asking his godfather to clear the slough, as people say.

"What do you mean – little time? There are two months!"

"No, just one, pup. And what hell of a month it will be, Harry. We need to clean all this pile of my ancestors' dung! Though, after, we will go to the Quidditch World Championship Final – Bulgaria versus Ireland!" Sirius replied, adding wild happy gestures to his words.

What the man told made Harry to jump in joy... almost – he suddenly remembered again that he wasn't a child anymore.

"After that, Albus will take you with him somewhere – he haven't told me exactly where, but assured me that nothing bad will happen to you. I guess the old fossil wants to channel some more of his magical awesomeness into you."

Harry looked thoughtful when Sirius told that.

"What does Albus need from me?" Harry wondered.

There was a loud pop – a house elf, which was old, filthy and dressed even worse than Dobby back from the Malfoy Manor, looked, apparently disgusted, at his master.

He fought with the bond magic to not bow to Sirius, but the magic was stronger and he surrendered to superior power.

"Mudblood-loving master has returned! Kreacher should serve someone better than you! What would dear mistress say if she was still alive and saw you.." the elf exclaimed defiantly.

Sirius didn't look touched even a bit by what the elf told him. He held his hand up, making the disgusting creature stop talking.

"It's nice to see you again, too, Kreacher. How were your holiday decade, by the way? Wait, don't speak, I don't want to hear you annoying voice interrupting my charming one. You chose the right moment to appear.

Now, listen carefully. I want this house to be clean as soon as possible, so you are going to help us to do that. You will also cook meals for us – three times a day – some decent food would be nice after eleven years in such a hell hole.

You must start right now, Kreacher."

The elf bowed to him respectfully

"Master has changed after Azkaban. Kreacher will start to do what Master ordered at once. Meal will be ready for you and your godson by 7pm, Master."

He disappeared with a pop. The distinct sound was considerably less harsh this time.

"He is the most strange house elf I've ever seen in my life, Sirius." Harry told his godfather

His godfather glanced at him and snorted.

"Strange? Crazy is the right word, pup, but he starts to respect you, once you don't act like some silly idiot. Though I would like nothing more than just strangle this little bastard, I can't."

"Why? We can ask Hermione to take care of him too, Sirius. She is for _everyone's_ equalityso it doesn't collide with her ideals." Harry suggested.

"Because although he is git, as house elf, I mean, as servant he is extremely experienced and good. Just wait and see. Now, pup, this dust won't disappear on its own. I also dread to even think what _else _is in this house now."

They stood up and started cleaning.

For the next five days they cleaned the whole house from a thick layer of dust that lay on _everything_. But not only the dust was there: boggarts hid in, literally, every dark corner, cupboard and under every bed; the doxies were beyond every curtain, and cockroaches – huge representatives of their species, to boot, sneaked everywhere. Once they'd finished, Sirius and Harry breathed with eathe.

Harry just loved the library in the house – though it wasn't as big as the Hogwarts' one, it had a huge collection of unique, one of a kind books. Although the most of them were about dark magic and, while Harry didn't think it was wise to use it, he studied it just to be prepared to what Voldemort and his followers could do.

He soon learnt that a person with wide knowledge of Dark Arts could _flay_ his opponent alive, _burn_ it with unquenchable flames, _crush_ the bones of one to dust, even make the blood inside the body_ boil_. But the Boy-Who-Lived knew the cost of such power – the very soul of dark magi would shatter to pieces with time, so, if the one died, there was no '_Next Great Adventure'_, as his mentor liked to say, - only the absolute nothingness. There was no turning back once you tempted, and Harry wouldn't be so short-sighted. The boy knew that to be a great or even _the greatest _wizard, he would never need to use the Dark Arts - Albus Dumbledore was the best example. Also, he dreaded absolute nothingness, because he could not even truly imagine one.

Sirius showed Harry a few tricks he could use in fight and also explained him why the young man should use everything from surrounding environment to help him in fight – why waste a lot of power to constantly block the incoming spells by 'Protego' or its more powerful counterparts, when he could just do the same by summoning stuff from around him? He showed Harry that charming several items around for the sake of distraction and annoying his opponents, and managing his magical power output could do wonders too.

But the outcome of their duels were always the same – Sirius, disarmed and incarcerated with red napkin stuffed in his mouth. It made him furious, but Harry was just _too fast, too unpredictable_. The man knew, though, that he will have his chance for revenge, and that moment would be _sweet_.

* * *

><p>Harry was just passing through the corridor on the first floor when he saw Sirius trying to throw away all the dark artefacts from his house. He rolled his eyes in annoyance – his godfather would throw away everything if Harry didn't stop him, and some of the items could be just too important, maybe, one of the vessels was just there lying in this huge pile of dangerous stuff.<p>

"We need to keep every one of them, Sirius – once Dumbledore will have taught me how to analyse the magical aura around objects, I will check everything here, because one very important thing may be here." Harry said, putting his hand on his godfather's shoulder.

Sirius looked at him incredulously.

"What? Are you going to be the new Dark Tosser, pup? No? Then nothing here is of any value for you!" he exclaimed.

Harry was _very_ serious now.

"I can't tell you the full reason – once you know, you will become the proud member of the Dark Lord's private list of people, who Voldemort would like to kill himself, preferably in a slow painful way too."

His godfather was hurt that the boy couldn't tell him the full reason. He already had been angry because of what Albus did to his godson, depriving him from childhood, but now he started to tell him some nonsense.

"You spend too much time with Dumbledore, pup – you even talk the same way he does." The gaunt man made his point, wildly gesticulating.

"Why, thank you, Sirius, I'll take it as a compliment." Harry replied, his eyes twinkling as one certain old wizard's.

"See! That's what I'm talking about!" Sirius exclaimed, "You now just need to wear those annoying half-moon spectacles and a pack of lemon drops!"

Harry pulled out the aforementioned kind of sweet from his pocket and smiled.

"Would you like one?"

"AAAARGH!" Sirius shouted in irritation and stomped out of the room he had been in.

The man had started scheming a lesson to teach for Harry already.

"The young prat would never know what hit him!" he thought and cackled evilly.

* * *

><p>It was a beautiful sunny Summer day, people walked outside, birds chirped and a nice cool breeze gently caressed everyone. But, back in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, the black-haired gaunt man executed his carefully-planned revenge on Harry Potter.<p>

"Wake up, Harry! The sun shines brightly already and we have a long and eventful day awaiting us!" Sirius shouted excitedly and tore the blanket on Harry away.

"Aquamenti" A harsh powerful jet of water hit Harry right in the face.

"Argh!" the green-eyed boy screamed and jumped from the bed. He was herded by Black's water charm expertly, precisely into the bathroom.

"Go to Hell, old bastard!" Harry exclaimed, closing the door. He heard a barking-like laugher.

When Harry turned up at the kitchen, his godfather was waiting for him there. The man sat at the head of table, smirking evilly at Potter.

"Good morning, pup."

Harry didn't reply at all – he sat on the opposite from Sirius and subtly pointed his wand under the table to the man.

"Flipendo"

Sirius was caught off-guard and crashed backwards with loud 'Argh!'

This time it was Harry who smiled.

"Hah! Got you with such simple spell! You are too old, dog." The young man teased.

Sirius recovered his pose quickly and cast a disarming charm at the young brat, which was deflected easily with simple 'Protego'.

"Nice try, old man." Harry teased him.

Kreacher chose this moment to apparate inside and started to put food on the table.

"Master could become better now, but he still plays stupid childish games. He can't even beat the annoying boy too! What a shame on Master's noblest house." elf mumbled, shaking his head in irritation.

"We will continue this later, little dunderhead." Sirius threatened.

"Yep, start chewing now, dog – the food can't eat itself so you must help it. I'm sure even you can do such a simple task. Though, who knows?"

Sirius growled and gave Harry a murderous look, promising another revenge.

The Kreacher-made food was actually very tasty and, surprisingly, wasn't poisoned. Harry and Sirius ate quietly, enjoying themselves.

After they finished their breakfast, the young man and his godfather had twiddled for the next hour, lounging lazily in the living room and listening to the Magical Wireless. Then they went to the improvised duelling platform in Master's Bedroom, which Sirius had never used – he was disgusted by a thought that his mother slept there once.

The platform was actually a product of transfiguration of a huge four-poster bed into a large podium. The bedroom was enlarged magically and the walls were warded against stray spells not to burn anything. The rest of the stuff in the room was filtered and everything that was of no use for them was thrown far far away.

The pair of wizards approached the platform and climbed on it. They bowed to each other and took a stance of their choice.

Sirius chose classic one: placing right feet forward, his left was on parallel with its counterpart, his torso turned sideways, and his wand hand towards the opponent – it was the choice of many magical duellers. The reason for it was that it exposed only one side to be hurt and it was much harder to hit the mark.

Harry was told by his mentor to never believe in nonsense like duels

'… _My boy, I want you to be prepared for a war and, though I don't like to shatter your dreams, I must tell you a fact – your enemies will try to kill you, to deflower and kill your girl-friends, and torture everyone you care about: they will never bow to you and wait while you prepare to fight...' _Albus' monologue reverberated in Harry's mind.

Still he found it funny to see his godfather become purple with rage when Harry made him collapse on ass.

Harry's stance replicated his mentor's usual: right feet a little bit forward and wand hand loosely at his side, ready to lightning-fast strike opponent with spell, his balance steady and mind ready to obliterate Sirius.

Sirius cast an auto-counting duelling charm that made everyone around its area of affect hear a mechanical voice counting from one to three.

"**One.. Two.. Three!"**

'Incarcerous!' Sirius opened the duel, trying to immobilize Harry by thick conjured ropes right at the starting point. They shot through the air towards him.

Harry burnt them with 'Incendio'

'Stupefy' the young man cast at Sirius, who deflected it with quick 'Protego'

Harry cast 'Homenum Revelio' and 'Ricrusempra' in quick succession. Both spells were aimed a few inches to the left intently.

Sirius took the bait, side-stepping these spells.

"What's the matter, pup, tired already?" the man taunted.

Harry smirked evilly – his godfather was so easy to fool!

'Tempus Tardo' he mumbled and moved fast behind his opponent's back. He tapped on Sirius' shoulder and the man turned around in surprise.

'Flipendo Tria!' Harry cast at point blank range.

Sirius was shot into the air, flew eighteen feet in the air and wrecked like an old plane, that spent all its resource, somewhere beyond the edge of the duelling platform.

"Argh! It's not fare! You promised me to never use this trick anymore!" Sirius exclaimed, climbing on the platform again.

Harry laughed light-heartedly

"My dear godfather, promises exist only to violate them. Oh, you still have your wand by the way.." the green-eyed wizard said, pointing his wand at Sirius in a blink of an eye

'Expelliarmus!'

Harry caught the wand expertly.

"It's new record for you, old man. You fell on your ass three times already." he teased.

"Just wait until I fully recover, little scum-bag" Sirius growled.

"I've told this so many times, old fart, yet you still end up on your sorry ass every time we duel..." Harry said.

Sirius suddenly remembered something and cast 'Tempus' to check the time – it was half past twelve already.

"C'mon, Harry, we should go to the Diagon and buy all the stuff we'll need during the Championship – better do it now then later." He told.

They quickly changed clothes and floo'ed to the Alley.

* * *

><p>The Diagon Alley was considerably less crowded than during the last days of August for sure. Still, there were <em>a lot<em> of people.

Sirius and Harry bought a magical tent with three large separate parts inside – two smaller served as bedrooms and one larger as combined kitchen-canteen.

They also bought a magical equivalent of fridge – large wooden box with one one side as a door, and stasis enchantment inside. The thing cost a crazy amount of money, because of the latter feature, but, 'Hey, am I the Lord of Noble and Most Ancient House of Black or no?'

Once they bought all the furniture they would need, food, some potions 'Just in case', two jerseys of Irish Quidditch Team ('No, pup, we won't cheer for Bulgarians!') and omniculars, the pair went back home.

* * *

><p>Sirius quietly opened the door and tiptoed to Harry, who still was sleeping.<p>

"WAKE UP!" the man shouted in Harry's ear.

Potter sprang from his bed at once.

"Ouch. Have I ever told you that you are blockhead?" He asked, walking toward the bathroom.

"No, but thank you, Harry. You have half an hour to prepare and dress – then we will portkey right to the campsite outside of the stadium. We'll spend two days there to see the fair... Be fast, pup - I've heard there will be veelas and I'm not Sirius Orion Black if I wont pick up one!" Sirius said excitedly and left Harry alone.

"As if the veelas would ever be charmed by this old fart" Harry mumbled, turning on the shower.

**AN: So the first chapter of Part Two is finished. Tell me, do you like new story pace more? **

**Thank you for your reviews.  
><strong>


	11. Chapter 11

_Chapter Two: The Quidditch World Championship_

Harry and Sirius were standing at the living room, all their stuff in their pockets, magically packed and shrunken.

"Ready, pup?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded.

His godfather took an empty bottle of butter-beer from the table.

'Portus' he cast

The bottle glowed with dim blue light.

"Touch it"

Harry complied.

"Igel" Sirius stated and they both disappeared in bright flash.

After a considerably long session of mad swirling in magical whirlwind they both fell on their behinds, harshly colliding with earth.

Their faces greened noticeably – now they knew that they had at least one thing in common.

"You know what, pup?" Sirius asked.

"What?" Harry questioned.

"Dumbledore is very famous for ridiculously many things he have done, but what is really important – he can kick almost anybody's ass in a blink of an eye."

"I know, Padfoot." Potter interrupted Sirius, looking a little bit annoyed by his godfather's statement of obvious.

"I know that you know, Harry, but let me finish. What is really spectacular about him is that sometimes instead of moving by feet in fight, he apparates around constantly, making it nearly impossible to hit him. This is very hard to do – you must have a hell lot of concentration to not splinch yourself." Sirius told to The-Boy-Who-Lived.

Harry smiled, seeing who appeared silently right behind his godfather. Albus put his hand on Sirius' shoulder, saying

"Indeed, my boy, it is hard, though I think Harry will be able to concentrate enough to achieve the same very soon – he is very determined to become a great wizard."

Sirius spin around.

"Albus! It's nice to see you again. We have just portkeyed here. How is the fair?" He asked.

"If I must describe it in a single word I would say - delightful, Sirius. Bertie Bott's showed their new product line and allowed to try it for free – these new beans are so yummy! So, shall we proceed further?" Dumbledore said.

Sirius chuckled.

"Albus, you may be more than century old, but you turn into child in close proximity of the sweets." he said, shaking his head.

The old wizard didn't reply, but his blue eyes twinkled behind the glasses of his half-moon spectacles. He gestured for Harry and Sirius to follow him.

* * *

><p>The camp consisted hundreds of tents – all of them were different in size, colour and capacity. But what really excited Harry was the fair around the camp. Magical companies knew there would be thousands of people so their many representatives were everywhere showing what they got. It was a blur of hundreds of lights, loud and moving around.<p>

He, his mentor and godfather decided to look around the place after Sirius and Harry would place their tent. They went through all the jovial chaos around them and stopped near a majestic pitch-black tent with myriads of stars charmed on its fabric illuminating measuredly. The large silver seal of Chief Warlock was embroidered on its entrance. Apparently by the look of the tent and its as luxurious counterparts around, the spot was for Heads of the Magical Ministry and special guests.

"Lay out your tent there, next to mine, Sirius." Dumbledore said, pointing to the quite large empty spot between his and minister's tents.

Sirius and Harry unpacked everything and returned all their stuff to original size. Then they spread out their tent and placed everything inside.

"Harry, my boy, may you please go hang out with your friends – I need to speak with Sirius a little. I've seen Weasleys just about fifty yards this way." Albus said, showing direction.

"Alright, Albus. I'll return in the evening." Harry replied and went the way his mentor showed him.

Just as Dumbledore said, about fifty yards to the north-west from their spot, an old worn large red tent stood, one of his best friends standing right by it.

"Potter, I thought I would have a rest from you at least for the Summer, you know." the redhead complained jocosely. Ron Weasley had grown up to about six feet five inches in three years, towering above Boy-Who-Lived. His height made Harry wonder how tall his friend would be in the adulthood.

"Awww... little Ronniekins can't have a break from 'Harry Time' even during the Summer." Harry teased, embracing Ron in a manly hug.

"Have you seen Draco?" Weasley asked.

"No, I thought you have." Harry replied, pointing at Ron.

"Nah, we can search for the blond ponce later. Let's go, we've been waiting for you, mate. You know what?"

Harry looked at his friend questioningly.

"Ginny misses you a lot!"

The object of aforementioned girl's passion blushed, pushing his friend... or trying to, because the friend wasn't affected at all.

Harry and Ron entered the tent. Potter was immediately grabbed into a bone-crushing hug by Molly.

"Harry, how nice it is that you came here! Sit, eat with us, dear – I've just cooked chicken soup and baked patties with potatoes." Weasley matriarch said, gesturing towards the table which was occupied by the whole family of redheads.

All of them stood and greeted Harry. The young man had never seen two elder sons – Bill and Charlie. The former was a curse-breaker of Gringotts, the latter was a dragon handler and worked in Romania. Bill was taller than Charlie, but the second eldest Weasly was much wider in shoulders and muscular – his work seemed to help him a lot to build such a body, apparently.

They all sat back, Harry taking a place next to Ron, and started eating. The soup was as delicious as any other food cooked by Molly. Once he finished it, he took a patty, stuffing halve of it in his mouth. Yep, he was hungry like a wolf.

"Oi, Ronnie, where is you blonde girlfriend?" Fred or George asked, Harry wasn't sure who was who.

The already tallest Weasley blushed, poorly trying to make it look as if he didn't hear the twin's question. His trying just made the entire last generation of Weasleys laugh. Their parents, though, were pleasantly surprised.

"Son, why haven't you ever told me that you have girlfriend?" Arthur asked.

"Yes, Ronald, why? I surely want to see her! Is she somewhere in this camp too?" Molly continued her husband's train of thoughts.

"Mr and Mrs Weasley, it's nice to meet you. Now I know where my pumpkin took his nice looks and sharp mind from." a dreamy voice said, making everyone turn to the source of it.

There, just by the entrance, Luna Lovegood was standing, radiating her already blossoming angelic beauty. In dull lighting of the tent's inside, she looked surreal, not from this world, her delicate porcelain skin and fair blond hair literally glowed, making all the men part of the table gape at her. Her unlawfully short bright yellow sarafan that exposed her long slender legs didn't help to suppress their reaction at all.

Bill and Charlie patted Ron's back admiringly, making him know that they were proud for their 'little' brother.

"Nice, bro" Charlie said.

"Yeah, for a moment I thought that she was a veela!" Bill continued.

Molly Weasley gave them two a stare that promised pain if they didn't shut their mouths right this instant. She then looked at the blonde girl, smiling kindly.

"Hello, dear. How's your father Xenophilius? I wonder why my son never told me about you." She said, staring accusingly at her youngest son. Then, suddenly remembering, she continued. "Ohh. Sorry, I'm so rude! What a terrible hostess I am! Come, sit at the table!"

Luna nodded her head and complied, sitting on the right from Ron and intertwining their fingers gently.

"He is well and engaged in creative activities as usual, Mrs Weasley." the girl replied.

Molly put a bowl filled to the edges with soup next to her.

"Thank you" Luna said, neatly gathering soup into her spoon.

She put the piece of flatware in her mouth and slowly took it out with her full lips closed around, all the time looking at Ron. The poor guy was redder then ripe tomato. Ginny's mouth corners twitched, while Arthur and Molly were oblivious about Luna's teases. Though, their elder sons and Harry, weren't, bursting in laugher.

* * *

><p>After having a nice lunch, Harry and the two doves went inside.<p>

"Sorry for leaving you alone, Harry, but I have something important to tell to my peanut." Luna said, grabbing reluctant Ron and going away.

Potter once again exploded in laugher. When he finally calmed down, shaking his head at his friends antics, Harry walked slowly towards the fair. He quickly cast a Disillusionment Charm on him to not be caught by the youngest Weasley.

The young man chose the right moment – the same moment he became invisible, Ginny went outside too, looking around. She stared right at the spot where Harry stood, making him freak out as he always did near her alone. Her crimson eyes, which matched colour of her luxurious hair, darkened a bit, and she crossed hands on her chest.

"Trying to trick me, Harry? Hmph. Go, if you don't want to see me now, you just had to tell me." she said, huffed and went back inside.

Harry breathed with ease and dispelled the disillusionment. He continued going to his destination, already hearing the bedlam even from still quite long distance.

Our hero passed by all kinds of trades – brooms, alchemical ingredients, souvenirs, sweets, drinks and clothes.. He even saw one guy trying to sell snakes!

Somebody patted his shoulder, making Harry turn around. Draco Malfoy stood right in front of him, smiling and extending his right hand.

Harry shook it firmly.

"Finally, I found you, Harry. How's the fair so far?" Draco asked.

"Quite good. Where are your parents?"

"Father is speaking with Minister and Mother has to stay with him to nod her head when it's appropriate, you know. Ron?"

"Luna is all over him right now in some dark corner of the forest, probably" Harry answered, smiling.

Draco snickered.

"I should have guessed as much... Father seems to know something about the next year that I don't and it irritates me!" he complained.

"Oh, I'm sure he plays unspeakable because of the Tri-Wizard Tournament – it was started anew." Harry said.

Draco's eyes lit at once.

"Really? Do you think we can try our candidacies for championship?"

"I don't know, Draco. Although I for sure would like to represent Hogwarts!" Harry answered.

Draco friendly pushed Potter on the shoulder.

"Leave some fame for your friends! You already have enough!" he shouted quizzically.

"You should have asked before I made up my mind, Draco, – I will become the Hogwarts' champion." Harry said.

His eyes were burning with flames of determination. Draco saw it clearly, knowing for sure now that his friend wasn't joking, and held his hands up.

"Ok, ok, Pottie – you are the champion, me and Ron are you two most loyal sidekicks. Don't cry, though, when the press will rip you to shreds. And don't you ever dare to ask me to do something perverted! Honestly I don't want to be the champion – too much attention, and I'm the future Lord Malfoy, so I would need this thousand galleon prize only to stuff it in Weasly's ass." Draco said seriously.

"By the way, you are unhealthily obsessedwith accumulating power and fame, Harry. Nah, you don't need my notations. Let's go find some trouble." he finished his little tirade.

They put their hands around each others shoulders friendly and started walking around the fair, looking for nothing in particular.

* * *

><p>Next day morning Harry, Albus and Sirius went to the stadium, after preparing themselves and having a breakfast. There was a huge line starting from the stadium's entrance and ending.. Harry didn't want to know where it ended.<p>

Dumbledore approached the checker, who was a nothing special man with balding hair and dull blue eyes. Sirius and Harry simply followed Albus.

"Tickets?" the checker asked in a bored way, sitting at his table and not even looking up.

"Hello, Gerod, it's nice to see you again. Three seats at, top box with the minister, the upper lounge, please." Dumbledore said politely.

Gerod looked up in surprise and saw Albus Dumbledore himself standing in front of him, in his sublime Chief Warlock robe.

"O-o-of c-course, s-s-sir. Just ent-ter the h-hallway and g-go to th-the left – there are st-tairs g-g-going up t-towards the Minister's l-lounge." the man stuttered.

"Thank you, Gerod. And don't you worry – you've done everything right." the old wizard said, twinkle once again apparent in his blue eyes.

They entered the very important people's lounge and were met by no one less than minister Cornelius Fudge with Lucius Malfoy at his side. The moment Harry saw the man, he understood that this guy was, as Harry's mentor liked to call this sort of men, a 'true politician', although it made the young man wonder about Albus' enmity toward them – the old man was one himself! Cornelius' green bowler-like hat really annoyed Harry too. Still he kept his appearance, firmly shaking minister's hand and having a small talk with him.

After the exchange of pleasantries ended, they all sat to their respective places – Fudge at the centre, Dumbledore at his right, Lucius at left. Harry sat with Draco at the table to the right from central. Sirius decided to catch up with his cousin Narcissa, so they sat at the left one.

The game started soon enough. The voice of commentator, accentuated by 'Sonorus', reverberated on the walls of huge quidditch stadium. Harry remembered that Sirius told him it could contain about a hundred thousands spectators at once!

"Welcome to the final game of Four Hundred and Twenty Second Quidditch World Cup!"

Tens of thousands of magical folk cheered deafeningly.

"Today I, Ludovic Bagman, am here to commentate this game!"

If the cheer by watchers of the game was deafening before it was literally thunderous now: thousands of flags were waved; screams, shouts and anthems were mixing into stunning Cacophony.

"First, I would like to introduce Bulgarian Team Mascots!"

* * *

><p>Draco and Harry were having a small talk when a hundred of... of <em>beautiful <em>women dressed in.. hem.. _some _clothes, whose faces and bodies were worthy of a thousand rapturous epithets by poets, made two friends, and not only them by the way, enter into an entranced state (and literally drool) – these women weren't human for sure.

Harry suddenly realized how stupid he must be looking at that moment: it was like a great dam was chimed by a huge stream of thoughts in his mind.

"Beautiful, entrancing, skin glowing, platinum blond hair... Think, idiot, think! ...Veela!" Potter thought.

He smacked his forehead, understanding just how much of an idiot he seemed to be a few moments ago, if Draco's or, actually, all the men watchers' hungry expressions were telling some story. Potter saw how men tried to enter the pitch but were blocked by a magical barrier, though they were all very persistent, continuing their futile attempts.

Veela started their ardent dance, making all blood in Harry's body move to one certain part of it – he could be resistant to their charm and occlument, but he still was a young man who was seeing a hundred of voluptuous women.

When his blond friend tried to jump from the top box' balcony, Harry swiftly stunned him with a quick 'Stupefy'.

Once the veela finished dancing, Harry awoke Draco.

'Rennervate'

"Uh... Merlin, what happened, Harry?" he asked, standing up and shaking his head.

"You were charmed by veela, ponce, - you tried to jump from our lounge to give them a hug (and maybe not only that), and would succeed if I didn't stop you. Not only you, though." the green eyed wizard answered, smiling.

"Thank you, Harry – I really appreciate what you did."

Potter friendly clapped his hand on Draco's back. The blond was really thankful.

"That's what friends are for, blondie! OUCH!" He was poked royally by Malfoy.

The voice of commentator boomed again.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, cheer for the IRISH NATIONAL TEAM MASCOTS!"

"**HURRAY!**" the great majority of watchers fulminated in cheers, making Harry's eardrums almost explode by the pressure they were under.

Although the cheer for Irish team mascots was thundering, their spectacular fireworks show and leprechauns didn't make Harry excited as much as dancing veela. No, it wasn't boring for him... alright, maybe, a little bit?

When people started madly muster leprechaun's gold from the floor, Harry and Draco laughed at people's stupidity – everyone who cared to actually study magical creatures a bit knew that little bastards' gold was fake and disappeared after a few hours.

* * *

><p>While the young men were enjoying themselves, Lucius and Albus made bets. How they did it without Fudge being involved? He was stunned and after he would be obliviated from a memory that he was stunned.<p>

"Forty thousand galleons on Bulgarians being victorious, Lord Dumbledore." said the former, writing a check on the aforementioned sum.

"My my, Lord Malfoy, you truly do like to make considerable stakes! Forty thousand galleons on Krum catching the snitch, but Irish still being victorious." Dumbledore conjured a fancy piece of parchment and wrote a check.

The men shook each other's hands, sealing the deal.

Both were sure in their rightness, but only one would be truly right after the game would end.

* * *

><p>"Ladies and gentlemen, let all of us kindly welcome the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team!"<p>

"Dmitrov! Ivanova! Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! AAAAAAND... KRUM!"

When the Bulgarian Team scarlet-clad players shot out from the entrance somewhere below, one by one, flying so fast that they blurred, all their supporters became ecstatic. Especially once the last player flew onto the pitch in a very fancy way.

Harry wondered how this Krum guy could be just eighteen – he looked as if he was at least twenty five, for Merlin's sake!

"And now – the Irish National Quidditch Team!"

Harry started hating all the watchers.

_It was too loud._

* * *

><p>"Lord Malfoy, I must tell that I greatly enjoy making business with you." Dumbledore jovially told Lucius, whose face wore annoyed scowl.<p>

Elder Malfoy gave the check to Albus and left, quickly taking Draco and Narcissa with him.

The Hogwarts headmaster subtly put the check in his inside pocket and left the stadium with Harry and Sirius.

* * *

><p>Harry and his godfather were having a nice dinner, when screams of terror were heard by them. They took their wands fast and ran outside.<p>

People were running from figures clad in black with skull shaped masks.

Harry blocked some reddish stray curse, conjuring concrete wall on its way.

"Who are those clowns, Sirius?" the young man asked, apparently bored.

"Death Eater scum, pup. Let's see now who can neutralize more!" the man exclaimed, taking out one of the idiots with a simple 'Expelliarmus'. He caught the fool's wand and broke it, switching swiftly to another target.

Harry had immobilized three Death Eaters already – using 'Incarcerous' followed by his now trademark red napkins stuffed in their mouths, when his mentor showed up.

Dumbledore bent on his knee, touching the earth with his wand's tip.

'Opprimo Conica!'

The earth cracked, glowing white, and an enormous conical shock-wave crushed ten Death Eaters who dared to attack the Supreme Mugwump. They were all thrown in the air as if they were some kind of skittles, and fell.. '_somewhere far_' as Harry thought, watching what Albus did.

Then it was just a blur for everyone... In ten minutes all the Death Eaters around him were overpowered and incarcerated by magic metallic ropes nicely.

"It must hurt like hell" Harry thought, smiling at them evilly.

'Accio Death Eaters' Masks' the old wizard cast. All their masks shot in the air towards him. He burnt them all with a fire whip, making all of the black-clad figures shudder in fear.

The head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement showed up with Hit-Wizard and Auror divisions. She was a strict looking person, and an aura of power was radiating from her – not the one Dumbledore had around him, in his case it was almost tangible raw magic, she instead had an aura of Authority, hardness, and a gaze that almost dared anyone to try make a joke about her.

"Albus, where are the rest of them" she said laconically.

"Dear Amelia, under more positive circumstances I would say how it's nice to see you again, but we must deal with the Death Eaters here first..." Dumbledore started his monologue. The woman's right eye twitched in irritation, but she successfully suppressed her the feeling.

"Albus, I don't have time to listen to your ranting. I repeat the question - where are they now?"

The twinkle left old man's eyes at once then.

"They are chasing the people in the forest. I counted about thirty more of them. So, do you require my assistance?" he said seriously.

"No, Albus, it's what these people are here for." she replied, gesticulating towards her subordinates.

"I want twenty of you to stay at the camp and check for anyone who is hurt and Eaters that can still stalk here. The rest of you – scour the entire forest for injured people and You-Know-Who followers." Amelia commanded.

All the law enforcers complied.

Albus patted Harry's shoulder proudly.

"You fought well, my boy. Now Sirius, I must take Harry with me - he will be _in safe place_ for the rest of the Summer Holidays." he said.

It was clearly apparent that Padfoot was unwilling to let Dumbledore take Harry _somewhere_, but his common sense told him that his godson really needed it.

"Alright, just take care of my godson or even your fancy magic wouldn't save your old miserable ass from my wrath, Dumbledore." Sirius threatened.

Albus put his hands up, calming the man.

"Of course, Sirius – Harry will be absolutely safe. Fawkes!"

The phoenix appeared on old wizard's shoulder.

"Take us you-know-where!" he asked his familiar, looking cunningly at Black and taking Harry's hand in his.

Mentor and his protégé instantly disappeared in a powerful blinding show of flames.


	12. Chapter 12

_Chapter Three: The Time Warp._

Harry and Albus with Fawkes perched on his right shoulder, emerged from fiery flames in some town's square. The night was starless and deep, so it was almost pitch black.

Harry looked around: a statue of some young couple and their child in mother's hands stood at the centre; various, some accurate and groomed, whilst others desolated and mouldering, houses encompassed the square, trees gently rustled their leaves.

Potter turned his head to his mentor, raising his brow questioningly.

"What's this place, Albus?" he asked.

"Take a closer look at the statue, Harry." Dumbledore replied softly, nodding at the stone impression.

The young man came closer to the statue slowly. He got a feeling that this place was somehow connected with his past.

His eyebrows went up greatly in surprise when he saw a lightning bolt shaped scar on the child's forehead. Poignant tears filled his eyes and once there were too much of them, they went down his cheeks, leaving wet salty trails on his face.

"I... Albus, I want to leave this place." Harry whispered bitterly.

If Dumbledore was surprised his protégé didn't want to see graves of elder Potters, the old man didn't show it. He put his hand on Harry's shoulder reassuringly and they left the place via the small town park.

Their way was short – just about ten-fifteen minutes of walking. They approached an immense sweeping seven-story house which stood apart from the others, separated by a sixteen feet high hedgerow. Without any gates. Once Harry looked closely he noticed that the thick vines, covered in considerably large spikes, were coiling beyond the facing of leaves.

Dumbledore touched the wall of living green mass, and it moved aside - there was a small passage now. The old wizard gestured for Harry to enter first and the young man complied.

There was a large cherry-tree garden before the house, lit by magical twinkles in the air, and a wooden bower with a table and two stools inside.

"Albus, why is the cherry still blossoming? It is the end of July already, isn't it?" Harry asked, looking around admiringly.

Indeed, the trees were covered beautifully in thousands of small snowy flowers that were caressed by the gentle hands of wind. The pair breathed deeply the dewy air, delighted completely by the atmosphere here.

"Ahh... plenty of water has flowed since I stepped my feet into my house before this moment, my boy." Albus said. His blue eyes were cloudy for a moment.

"Oh, sorry, Harry. I'm too old now – can't even stop my ranting sometimes... I charmed them, of course – it is very good to be a wizard most of the time, no?" He continued, smiling under his white beard.

"Why are we here, Albus?" Harry questioned.

"I must teach you too many things, my boy, and, as you know for sure, there is so little _time_." Dumbledore answered, twinkle in his eyes reaching mad proportions.

"You have time turner and you want me to use it to expand the time-frame of August for us?" Harry guessed.

"My boy, please, stop making such crazy guesses! One turn of this device will make you travel back just for an hour. Can you imagine how much your hand would be covered in callus in the end of the next month?" Dumbledore replied, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I've told you many times that my speciality is Transfiguration and Time Magic. The technique we are going to use is called 'Time Warp'. And no, it's not some time twist that moves you back in your old body with all your knowledge, magic etcetera. Instead, it affects a limited area, making a Time flowing faster a few times then outside of its bounds – it can be adjusted by the creator. The effect? Whilst in the outside world only one month will pass, three years will pass here." Albus explained to his pupil, drawing some complex schemes in the air with his wand, schemes that made Harry's head almost explode after a few futile attempts to understand his mentor.

"I am ready to begin right now." the young man said, determined to give up three years of his life to become a better wizard.

"It's a very serious matter, Harry. It is not the only way, though the most effective... I advise you to think it through carefully for a few days and only then give me the answer. There is no turning back once we begin." Dumbledore said seriously.

"Albus, **you **have told me there is no miracles in this world, even with magic. You can't liven the dead up, drink some potion that bestows Basilisk animagi form on you and quadruples your magical power; there are no silly swords that can turn their owner into a killing machine and deflect Unforgivables. By the look on your face I've understand that the only other **way **is to use a time turner and I won't use it – too farcical." Harry parried.

"Good. Then let us begin this instant. Follow me." his mentor said, going towards the heavy entrance double doors.

He stopped abruptly after making a few steps.

"And, my boy."

"Yes, Albus?"

"The Time Turner is as dangerous as a bee in comparison with the Time Warp, which is Voldemort, if we follow the analogy. One small mistake and we are both trapped in the Infinity – unable to move, unable to die, unable to think, unable to do _anything_." Dumbledore stated, evidently not joking at all.

Harry gulped nervously. Still he was too stubborn to stop once he had begun.

* * *

><p>"Albus, why your house is so huge? You don't even live here!" Potter complained. They had been walking for half of an hour already – his mentor's house went underground thrice as much as above.<p>

"Of course I don't need such a vast house, but it is the matter of sentimentality. If you studied the history of Dumbledores you would know that my family lost its all wealth and prestige – so poor it was that my ancestors had to sell our family place about four hundred years ago... Once I defeated Gellert, becoming rich and known around the world, I bought and renewed it." Albus answered.

The entered into a large circular room with high stone ceiling and walls. It was completely empty.

"What are we doing here, in the empty room, Albus?" Harry asked.

"This room is suitable to contain the foundation of the Warp. Harry, it is imperative that we don't leave this place until the ritual is finished. Now, position yourself at the centre. Good. Do not leave it." Dumbledore said.

He started to carve a ligature of magic symbols on the wall with a conjured knife. Harry could comprehend only a few: time, acceleration and isolation. It all seemed like a scene from some cheap fantasy film for him – he was quite sure at the moment that his mentor would carve a pentagram or something similar nonsense on the floor beneath Harry. Alas, or fortunately, Dumbledore didn't.

The old man connected his wand's tip to the symbol chain and started channelling his magic in it. The air was trembling around Albus, and a visible bright aura of power surrounded him, blinding Harry. The symbols started glowing one by one making deep humming sound. Suddenly Harry felt piercing pain inside his head, accompanied by a high ringing in his ears, and the young man fainted, being taken in the warm embrace of oblivion.

* * *

><p>Harry awoke on the stone floor of the same room. The floor was surprisingly warm and.. soft? He wondered how stone floor could be soft. Potter slowly stood up, only partly remembering what happened with him. The low humming of glowing symbols could still be heard and Harry instinctively knew that the ritual was successful: the atmosphere was different, even the air tasted.. strange? Yes, strange was the right word.<p>

He was trying to recollect his memories, when his mentor entered the room.

"Harry, finally, you have awoken! Come, there is much to do – we must make your three years here **very **productive." Dumbledore said and started to walk outside, Harry on his trail.

From this moment on, for the whole period of three years, Harry had only five hours to sleep every day – the rest nineteen hours he spent learning from Albus. It seemed as if his mentor had very little time left until the next great adventure – Dumbledore literally poured the knowledge in the young man's head by gallons. The old man didn't pity his protégé at all, loosing all his 'grandfathering' likeness. Harry sometimes thought his brain was going to explode, but he restrained himself, giving his laziness and doubts a nice strong kick in the ass. There were no place for games and only two people were in the vast family house of Dumbledores – teacher and his pupil.

Albus once jocosely told Harry during the dinner that the young man knew now what he was getting himself into – almost no time to rest, a horde of boot-licking poodles, Dark Lords breathing in his neck, and **crazy **training.

Although Dumbledore didn't like the word: he preferred to use 'Self-Improvement' in his lexical circulation.

That crazy sadistic old man – if trying to take out twenty animated wooden dummies at once (that cast quite painful stinging hexes at him, and, once they reached Harry, they kicked him in the butt – ouch) using only silent 'Diffindo' was 'Self-Improvement', then he was a man-veela capable of bonding all the girls he wanted to himself, turning them into his sexual slaves. Ehh.. dreams..

But let us return back to the first day after the Time Warp ritual and watch everything in more chronological order.

* * *

><p>Forward. Left. Ahead again and to the right... Harry was sure that if he wasn't accompanied by Albus, the young man would be lost in this labyrinth. After walking silently for only Merlin knows how long, they finally passed through the front entrance and sat at the table inside the bower.<p>

"My boy, we must discuss your daily timetable. Do you have any suggestions that you would like to share with me?" Dumbledore said, putting his elbows on the table edge and connecting his fingertips in front of his face. Snowy white blossoms of cherry were reflecting on his spectacles' glass.

"More Time Magic practice and.. emm.. maybe something new?" Harry guessed, not quite prepared for such a question.

"Yes, Harry, I will teach you some new techniques of Time Magic – more offensive part of it this time. Also, being sure about your considerable knowledge of Runes and Arithmancy, I will introduce the art of Spell-Crafting and Enchanting to you. But let us not try jumping over our own heads – some good old Combat Transfiguration and Charms will be poured into your still empty head first. Ah, by the way, here is your timetable!" Dumbledore said, giving a sheet of parchment to Harry.

The young man scanned it quickly: waking up, physical enhancement, alchemy, blablabla... wait WHAT?

"Why isn't there any breakfast and lunch time with only one dinner in week, each Sunday, Albus?"

"Our dinners are going to be every week's conclusion – the perfect time to think through everything you've learnt and ask some last questions before moving on. You'll get nutritious potions instead of normal food – I know, they aren't the most tasty kind of potions, but they are very convenient in our situation." Dumbledore answered with a _weird _twinkle in his eyes.

Harry slowly rubbed his temples – he finally realized that he signed in for the trip to Hell and back.

"We've lost one day already, Harry. Let's begin with the silent casting practice..."

Albus swiftly conjured a dozen of magic dummies out of thin air and ordered them silently to beat the consciousness from Harry.

"You may use everything you know, but without oral incantation, my boy."

Clap. Clap. Clap... The sound of heavy wooden steps were heard by Harry. Only about seventeen feet separated him from the dummies.

"Oh shit..." he thought, and started casting all kinds of direct offensive spells he knew.

'Incendio' burnt one into dust.

The second one was split in halves by 'Divido Raptim' – a charm that magical lumberjacks used to cut the wood, though it could cut more than just mere wood, imitating a cleave by a huge invisible axe.

By the time the wooden constructs approached Harry, he took out only three. Nine dummies started to stomp the hell out of him with their heavy blunt feet.

When Harry awoke the next day all bruised, in the same place and was met by his mentor, who towered over the lying young man already. Albus' face was dead serious – no twinkle, no mirth in his eyes, only the harsh tangible aura of power around him.

He offered his right hand to Harry, who gladly took it, standing up.

"You want to become the greatest – you will be, but remember – there is always a price tagged on everything. Here, take your breakfast." Albus gave a nutritious potion to Harry, who swallowed it all in one single gulp.

Eww...

* * *

><p>For the whole first month, Dumbledore had been telling Harry about mistakes of his youth: the Greater Good and Grindlewald and Ariana with Aberforth. Harry had heard it all before, but Albus explained even the smallest details this time: his feelings towards Gellert, his arrogance and his selfishness that led to the demise of his sister.<p>

Then for the rest of the first year Harry had been taught the whole Hit-Wizard Program – his mentor used to be one during the time between his mid-twenties and the beginning of thirties. The difference between Hit-Wizards and Aurors, as Albus explained to Harry, was similar to the difference between Special Forces and muggle Police – vast and extremely significant.

The young man was taught the basic magical survival skills, which included food and water conjuration, first and not only first magical aid; and intensive combat training.

The last bit he would remember for the whole life – Dumbledore usually conjured dummies that could cast a set of simple offensive spells like 'Stupefy', 'Diffindo' and 'Expelliarmus'. Also they kicked Harry in the ass once they approached him.

During the last month of the first year Dumbledore even duelled with Harry a few times – their duels last for only several seconds, but Albus assured the young man that in the end of his Three-Year Harry would be a formidable opponent even for him.

The second year was all dedicated to the Time Magic - Harry honed his control over time flow and learned the only direct offensive Time Magic spell, which was borderline dark, and its modifications from Albus.

The day Harry was taught this spell, or, actually, the sensations he felt when he used it for the first time, imprinted on his mind forever.

Harry was standing by his mentor in the Practicing Hall – the huge room with twenty feet high ceiling which, together with the walls, was warded heavily so that its inhabitants could cast everything their hearts desired.

Albus turned to his pupil, starting his lecture.

"Time Magic does have the offensive branch, Harry, though it includes a single spell and many modifications of it. The spell I am going to show you must be used with great caution – while it doesn't condemn your soul as Dark Magic does, it surely may corrupt you with its power, twisting your mind. Just as Unforgivable Curses, it can't be blocked by magic directly and it is very potent. Watch."

He conjured a big grey wolf and held his wand in both hands, pointing it at the animal.

"Exsiccatus Ocius Conducta!"

A thick opaque beam of grey light reached the wolf. The animal's body aged instantly and rapidly decayed making even its bones turn into dust. For the whole ten seconds that the spell took to destroy the animal, it was paralysed, unable to move at all – unable to escape. Harry could see the excruciating pain it felt.

Dumbledore wiped the sweat from his forehead by his robe's sleeve. He was obviously tired. Still, he continued his lecture, turning again to his protégé.

" 'Exsiccatus Ocius' can be used against non-living objects as effectively as against living and breathing.."

"Even against vampires, Albus?" Harry interrupted his mentor. The young man remembered well what he read about the nocturnal blood-suckers – they weren't affected by aging.

The old man chuckled lightly.

"Harry, what do they feed on?"

"Blood."

"And if they don't drink the blood regularly what happens?

"They die."

"There is your answer, my boy. While the vampires are not affected by deterioration, they do have to feed, in fact vampires, because of their blood hunger, die much faster under this spell. Now try it yourself, Harry."

Albus conjured the second wolf.

'Exsiccatus Ocius Conducta' Harry exclaimed, mimicking his mentor.

The grey beam connected the young man and the animal. The latter started to slowly age and decay. While the wolf was dying in front of his eyes, Harry was feeling as if something incredibly powerful and _eternal_ breathed in his neck, looking at him as if he was a mere insect. Potter's gut told him to not look back, and he trusted his gut. He knew if he failed to suppress his curiosity and did look back he would be damned forever.

After seeing that there was nothing left of the poor animal, Harry dismissed the spell, only then realizing how exhausted he was. His hands were shaking and he was all covered in sweat as if he just left a steam-room.

"Albus, when I channelled this spell, I felt as if _something _stood right behind me, watching.." Harry said, accepting the bottle of water his mentor gave him.

"Harry, it is Time itself. Using 'Exsiccatus Ocius', you act as a bridge between Time and Target, that's why you feel It being close to yourself." Dumbledore answered.

Then he looked seriously at Harry.

"And, my boy."

"Yes, Albus"

"Never look back when you use this spell, if you do not wish to feel its effect on yourself."

* * *

><p>Albus taught Harry the basics of Enchanting and Spell-Crafting for the whole third year. While both arts were not Harry's cup of tea, the young man studied them as hard as he could.<p>

"Enchanting is a very precise art, Harry. Being its friends helps us, great magi, to survive. It can make you so fast that your opponents would see only a blur, so strong that you would be able to pick up a ten ton rock; it can turn a mere robe into an armour that can deflect spells back at their casters. But the price is high – a single mistake in calculations and you are on your way to the next great adventure."

"And you never know if everything is well or no, until you test it on practice."

"As you of course know already, Numerology is a part of Arithmancy that studies the Magic of Numbers. Give me some examples, my boy." Dumbledore said, walking back and forth slowly with his hands closed behind his back.

"One is the focus – it's best for a single purpose, two is the connection between opposites, three is the sides of one same, four is the death, five is the excellence, six is the misfortune – it turns the meant effect into something completely different, seven is the perfection.." Harry said.

"Enough for now, my boy. I wanted to ask you what you know about Runes, but there is no need for it now – I am sure you understand them as well as Numerology." Dumbledore interrupted the young man.

"Enchanting requires the person, who use it, to excel both in Numerology and Runes. Now can you please guess what rune and number take the main role in the Spell Deflection Enchantment?"

"One for one purpose, and the Mirror for deflection?" Harry asked.

"You **may **use this set, but it would not be very potent: as you said, One is for one purpose – the more narrow is the profile, the better. It would be perfect if I asked you to create, for example, the Stunning Charm Deflection Enchantment."

Harry started to take notes, writing them on the parchment.

"But, if I wanted to create the Spell Deflection Enchantment, which, as its name suggests, should be universal, I would use Six instead of One and the Shield instead of Mirror. Six, being the Misfortune – the last thing anybody expects, would turn the spells against their casters, the shield would save _you _from the effect, while the mirror is fragile and can cut you with its shards."

"Now, what numbers and runes I would need if I wanted to enchant my spectacles to see invisible?"

* * *

><p>"The last week, I introduced the Enchanting to you. This time, I ask to love and favour, the Spell-Crafting."<p>

"As you know, Arithmancy has a branch similar to Divination that allow magi to predict the future. To create a new spell you need to have two halves – first is, of course, purpose, second is the right incantation. Arithmancy helps you to find the right parts of incantation. For example, I want to create a spell that would comb my hair – I start to select suitable Latin words and check them arithmancically to find the best."

"What about wand movements, Albus?" Harry asked.

"My boy, can't you guess yourself? The same way."

Harry put his face in palms – the last year was going to be Hell.

* * *

><p>Greatness... Greatness is such a versatile concept. Anybody could say that Dumbledore was a great wizard, or Voldemort, or Grindelwald, or One of the Hogwarts Four, or Merlin. Every one of those great wizards left a mark in the history, becoming immortal in the minds of magi. Harry James Potter became known everywhere in the Wizarding World before he started to talk clearly, but he wasn't great. Yet. He was on his path to greatness.<p>

Snowy white cherry flowers surrounded the duo again. Myriads of those beautiful blossoms and leaves slowly made a gentle noise – 'Shhhhh...', they were trying to shush everyone who dared to speak near them.

Both Albus and Harry were standing still, not moving, studying each other's eyes, wands loosely at their sides.

Potter, being much younger and considerably less patient opened the duel.

'Expelliarmus!' the red beam almost reached the old wizard when he apparated away, turning up behind Harry.

'Opprimo Unum' Dumbledore sent a thin shock-wave towards the young man, but Harry swiftly apparated too.

The battle stated to increase its pace: both opponents popped up, cast some offensive spell and disappeared to pop up again somewhere else.

It continued until they started to use the Time Magic.

'Strigo..' Albus started incanting

'Tempus Tardo!' Harry cast quickly.

'.. Momentum' Dumbledore finished, stopping the time flow. He cast a few stunning and disarming charms from several angles at Harry and released the spell.

Five Stupefy's and two Expelliarmus'es rapidly flew towards Potter, but the young man was under too fast for them – he quickly dodged them, apparated behind his mentor's back and sent a disarming charm at Albus.

The old man deflected it with 'Protego'

Dumbledore clapped his hands in applause

"Not bad, _my boy_" the last two words triggered the contingency.

After a blinding flash of light disappeared, Harry was paralysed and disarmed instantly.

"You must always be prepared completely, Harry. I noticed a few weeks ago that you stopped to use the contingency practice – very bad, my boy, very bad. Still, I am very proud of you – you've become a great young man." Albus said, after releasing Harry from 'Petrificus Totalus' and returning his wand.

Indeed, Harry Potter became a great young man. He was six feet four inches now, well built but without too defined musculature – he was a wizard, not an athlete. His constant close proximity to Albus Dumbledore affected the green-eyed wizard a lot – his emerald eyes held a portion of his mentor's wisdom, his movement became confident, shoulders straighten and mind crystal-clear.

"Tomorrow we will apparate to the King's Cross Platform Nine and Three Quarters – there Sirius will be waiting for us. Then you will take your usual Hogwarts Express Trip, preferably without any childish fighting, Harry – you are seventeen years old now. **Do not **tell the truth to anyone – for everyone but two of us and Sirius, who already wowed a magical oath, you just spent all the Summer in the Black Manor." Dumbledore instructed Harry.

Harry was adult now – he completely understood why his mentor gave him such instructions, without some stupid naïve childish grievance.

"Yes, Albus, I understand. What's about the Tournament?" Potter asked.

"What about the Tournament, my boy? Of course you will participate in it! The Champion of the Tri-Wizard Tournament is a very good support in your Personal History." The old man's eyes twinkled brightly.

"Isn't it quite risky?"

"Harry, life itself is a sequence of risks. They make it interesting."

"Uhuh."

They sat in the bower for the whole night, having a small talk and consuming a killer portion of lemon sherbet and tea.

Harry got a feeling that this night was one of the few last peaceful ones in his near future.

**AN: People, seriously, write some reviews please! If the story is bad and silly then write – your story sucks, man, please delete it. If it's good enough for you review too!**

**I have a question for the folk of GB – how do you call the document where every ounce of information about you is kept? I dunno if it's Personal File or Personal History or whatever – please correct me here. **

**Lemon Sherbet, not Lemon Drops – sorry.**

**Finally a new review! **

**Fox of the Blood Moon – Daphne is... hard to write about(?) I regret a lot that I screwed her fiery character with feelings towards Harry, but just read and see. The first three academic years were more like a collection of 'flashes' than normal story – a ~25k words prologue. I am scheming the scenes of Harry/Daphne and Daphne/Other-Girl (not **_**sex **_**scenes, you now: fighting, talking – this kind). Khem. About Voldegin's eyes – she is a... 'mix' of 16-year old Voldemort and Ginny Weasley, their magical cores are merged, her soul and his shard of a soul are merged, their minds are merged, but she is Dominant, not he – she did inherited his crimson eyes though. You may parry here with the point that it's unlikely for just sixteen year old Tom to have crimson eyes, but we should remember that he, though young, already made his first horcrux. **

**I am outlining a new story. It is Sirius-Centric and dances around the idea of 'What if Sirius was a real betrayer?' It is NC-17, a lot of sailor-style words, sex, alcohol, drugs(magical!), bloody human and not-so-human intestines spilled everywhere, and all kinds of extremism – yep, from more canonical Pureblood Supremacy to the naked racism. The raw version of Chapter One is ready – it just needs some polishing. And no, I'm not a racist, thank you very much. But ****the story about magical extremist seems to be catching, no?**


	13. Chapter 13

_Chapter Four: Welcome, once again, to our Prestigious School! (Or 'Spotted Dick is not what you may think it is!')_

Harry's head poked from the sea of magical folk: it felt _weird _to tower above the majority of people. Ah there he was – Ron Weasley, who had got another inch since the World Cup, waved to his friend. His family was nowhere to be seen, which was great – Potter did not wish to be asked unwanted questions. Only once Harry approached him, the redhead realized how much his black-haired friend changed. Nevertheless, he shook Harry's hand firmly and smiled.

"Potter, don't tell me it's the result of the growth spurt."

"But it is, Ronnie, honestly."

Harry's eyes started twinkling slightly.

"Mate, you really spend to much time with this old fossil. No offense: he is the rescuer of the Wizarding World, Cavalier of Merlin, Supreme Mugwump blablabla, but he seems crazy sometimes!" Ron said.

"Every genius is crazy.."

"Ouch, now I'm the shortest one!" a familiar voice exclaimed behind them, interrupting their friendly exchange.

Ron and Harry turned around to see Draco Malfoy himself in flesh before them – the scion of the Noble House of Malfoy, the Ponce, the Blond Git Supreme, the Moste Handsome Skinny Boy, etcetera.

Indeed, he was dwarfed, when he stood next to his two best friends, even with his 6 feet height. Draco jumped up, hanging on two tall boys' necks.

"Bring your Master to his Palace, oh my faithful stallions!" he shouted in an annoying high-pitched voice.

The trio burst in laugher, and the _stallions _jocosely complied, taking their blond _master _to the last compartment in the first carriage.

Harry sat on the bench to the left from the entrance while his two friend occupied the opposite one.

"So, how did you spend the rest of the Summer, guys?" he asked.

Draco lightly hit Ron's side with his right elbow, nodding towards the green-eyed wizard.

"See, he is trying to postpone the unwanted questioning about his sudden 'Growth Spurt'" he added air quotes in the end.

"But we are not as dim-witted as he thinks we are, are we?" Ron asked.

"My friend, we are not dim-witted at all – quite the opposite, we are some of the best specimen of the Pure Blood!" the blond lifted up his right index finger dramatically.

"Ok, stop this nonsense already, mates." Harry said.

"Now the scar-head is asking for mercy! Shall we forgive him the last and only time?" Draco questioned Ron.

"_Maybe_, but he needs to start talking right this instance."

They turned their gazes at Potter, who sighed in defeat.

"Alright, here is the story – I spent the whole Summer in Black Manor. Period."

"And?" Draco asked, gesturing for Harry to continue.

"And it's all not true, but I can't tell you what really happened." Harry truly was a little bit sad that he couldn't tell his friends about the time he spent in Godric's Hollow.

"Dumbledore again?" Malfoy asked understandingly.

"Yes. He asked me to not tell anyone what I've been doing during the August, even if given an unbreakable vow." Harry replied.

Ron whistled admiringly.

"The last month must have been the hell in all its hellish glory for you, mate." he said.

"It was."

The train began moving, releasing a lot of steam.

"Now let me know how **you **spent your last Summer days – I'm sure you had much more delightful time." Harry changed the subject, at least partly.

"Mine were utterly uneventful – sleep, eat, study, kick the twins' skinny freckled asses. If I didn't have Luna in my life, I would die out of boredom there.." Ron stated.

"At least there was somebody to kick in the ass, snog and squeeze for you, Ronniekinns – I spent all August in the manor of our French relatives – they are so madly annoying! _Draco, what do you think about your cousin Jacqueline? She will be the perfect wife for you!_" Draco complained, mimicking his aunt believably.

"Khem. I return my words back then, guys. Surely I have had much better Summer... Oh, Ron, where is Luna, by the way?" Harry said.

"The last time I saw her, she was with Ginny and some other third year girls. Why?"

"It's boring here without her, that's why."

Harry and Ron were having a party of magical chess with Draco as a commentator, when Daphne Greengrass entered the compartment.

Draco and Ron started smiling stupidly, but were stopped immediately by the violent gaze of her azure eyes. She may have a fancy for our hero, being very patient and gentle with him, but certainly she would never take any nonsense from his two best friends, or anyone else.

Her gaze softened greatly once she turned it to Harry.

"Merlin, she is Goddess." Potter thought, admiring her incredible cold beauty.

He was absolutely right – indeed, though just fourteen at the moment, she was too perfect to be just a mere mortal. Her luscious plump lips, smooth long legs, graceful curves and hair as dark as the starless night sky, and eyes, _eyes_!

At this moment, Harry understood finally that he was one lucky son of a bitch to ignite interest in so voluptuous women. Right, Daphne was a woman – his tongue couldn't turn to call her a girl any more.

She smiled broadly at him, revealing her even white teeth. Daphne was positively surprised to see the object of her dreams turning into a fine man.

But let us stop describing Harry's change in height or it will turn into a running joke.

"You look most excellent, Harry."

"Thank you, Daphne. I must say, your _extraordinary _beauty will shadow the whole female halve of Hogwarts."

"Even me, honey dear?" an elegant feminine voice asked.

Ginny Weasley stood there, reclining on the doorway with her right shoulder, legs crossed, sweet smile on her face.

Draco and Ron moved their eyes from one member of the Hogwarts Great Love Triangle to another. It seemed as if there was a can of popcorn, they would start to munch it (popcorn, not can), enjoying the show that was unwrapping in front of them. The redhead obviously didn't care that one of the actors was his younger sister – _oi, it made all just much more exciting!_

The brunette sharply spun around. Stares clashed, fists clenched, hexes flashing on the wand tips, ready to harm.

"Weasley, you have five seconds to leave this compartment." Daphne said. She was calm outwardly, but only because the fiery storm of emotions inside of her was squeezed in the iron gloves of her will.

"Really? And what if I don't?" Ginny teased, inclining her head a little to the side. She played with her Dragon Heartstring Ebony wand, loosely twirling it in her right hand – a habit she inherited from Tom.

"I will help you to leave with great pleasure." Daphne threatened.

Ginny's crimson eyes darkened. In her rage she resembled a Valkyrie from ancient myths – equally glorious and dangerous.

"I certainly would love to see you try, Greengrass." She replied frostily.

The vying girls didn't notice that Harry and his two friends had a wordless conversation, using slight gestures, nods and looks. The trio finally nodded to each other and executed their hastily-made plan – Harry, being more powerful magically, cast wordless 'Stupefy' at Ginny, while Draco and Ron aimed at Daphne's back.

The girls didn't know what hit them – they sprawled on the floor, unconscious.

"I'll take Gin to her compartment." Ron said and picked up his little sister with his large strong hands. He slowly started to walk to wherever Ginny's compartment was.

Draco looked straight at Harry's emerald eyes.

"I won't touch _her – _still want my hands nicely intact to feel around some girl, you know." the blond wizard told seriously.

Harry carefully picked up the insensible girl and carried her away.

Fortunately, the rest of the Hogwarts Trip was spent without any casus.

* * *

><p>The weather was a complete mess – cold, wet and windy. The friends reached the horseless carriages as fast as they physically could, occupying the closest one.<p>

Harry was delighted that it wasn't his first year – rain and thunder wasn't the best kind of weather for the trip on boats.

The Hogwarts, in all its massive illuminating glory, was coming closer and closer to them – years were passing, but the view was as stunning as the first time he saw it.

* * *

><p>The students entered the Entrance Hall – Peeves, the Hogwarts Poltergeist, already waiting for them here.<p>

"Fancy a nice cool shower? Wheeeeeeee!"

He started throwing water-filled balloons at them, cackling madly.

Harry, Ron and Draco simply disillusioned themselves and silently proceeded to the Feast.

"Hahahahaha! I have enough to freshen everyone, little squirts!"

A large red balloon fell on the heads of some unlucky third years, covering them in ice cold water.

Some girls screamed in horror and quickly plunged into the Great Hall.

The poltergeist eventually made a critical mistake – he made Ginny's luxurious dark red hair wet.

The girl burnt him with the stare of her intensely red eyes, freezing him in place.

"You? No-no-no-no-no! Don't punish me!" he shouted in horror in his high-pitched voice and flew away, escaping from her wrath.

Students already freaked out because of Ginny's crimson eyes, but seeing the usually intrepid poltergeist run away, squeezing his tail between his legs, raised the fear of her to the skies and above. Everyone started circumventing her on ten feet at least, but she didn't mind. The beautiful and tall redhead swiftly dried her hair with a wordless 'No Sudus' – the advanced water-evaporating charm that required a great deal of self-control, to _**not evaporate anything else **_– human body is mostly water too, and walked to the Great Hall.

* * *

><p>The Great Hall welcomed the entire student body with its warm gentle embrace that made everyone feel absolutely safe. The trio occupied their usual place at the Slytherin table – the corner that was closer to the entrance, where, excluding them, only first years sat traditionally.<p>

Now, coming to Hogwarts for the fourth time and consequently becoming more older, Harry was a little bit less excited to be here on the Sorting and the Welcome Feast that followed it – slowly but surely, all this was becoming a routine.

He looked discreetly at Ginny, then Daphne, checking how they were – the girls drilled each other heads with piercing stares, which promised an ocean, a sea and a lake with a sandy beach of pain, but otherwise were perfectly intact.

The fifth table, for staff, had two empty seats – one, between Albus' chair and where Snape was sitting, was obviously McGonagall's, the other was meant for the new Defence Professor. His mentor was deep in thoughts as always before the Sorting: the old man's chin was resting on his connected fingertips, his eyes unfocused, his mind on some different, far away plane.

A loud thunderclap boomed through the Hall, reminding everyone that the life wasn't a candy and the weather was still crappy.

Professor McGonagall brought a herd of first years inside. She approached the three-legged stool with the Hat atop of it and turned around, pulling out a list of their names on the parchment. Before the aged witch started to call out their names, beginning the Sorting, the Hat began singing the song it prepared for this year's Welcome Feast.

"_It takes an auto-truck of weed to write the story, folk._

_So please consider to review my silly story, **TALK**._

_For you I made a silly rhyme again,_

_This time about the writers that do not have shame._

_Some writers try to put a silly muggle song instead of rhyme (No way!),_

_Some put some kind of shitty Prophecy to kill our time (Impossible!),_

_Some shamelessly prefer to copy-paste the Hogwarts Sorting Song (How preposterous!),_

_Some even make the Sorting Hat start talking Parseltongue (Oh Merlin!)._

_The others, just like me, or me like them,_

_Prefer to Warp and Twist the Sorting Song_

_Again, again, again..._

_Now you may think that story's turning into shit,_

_Because the Time Warp and my problem of the insufficient weed._

_But, Ho! Do not be sad! There is a complete bomb_

_That'll crack your clever heads just like a kick from steed,_

_With Snape atop of it, or, maybe, some another git._

_Until next time, my faithful friends,_

_Do not be bought by silly frigging trends._

The students replied with a huge wave of ovations which thundered throughout the Great Hall for a little bit more than a minute.

Then the Sorting started.

"Ackerley, Stewart!" "**Ravenclaw!**"

The house of blue and bronze applauded the still trembling boy.

"Baddock, Malcolm!" "**Slytherin!**"

The slytherin part of student body burst in cheering in unison, showing the rest of the school how to welcome a newbie for real.

The process continued for about half an hour and all the four Houses got nearly equal number of firsties.

Finally, the Sorting ended and the headmaster stood up from his large chair, opening his arms widely and thus showing them that he welcomed his every single student no matter who he or she was.

"I have only two words for you before the Feast – '_Tuck in_'"

As soon as he finished his nine-word 'speech', the various kinds of food appeared on the plates. Everything edible was instantly attacked by the hungry horde of students.

"Oi, Spotted Dick, look!" Ron exclaimed excitedly, pointing his index finger at the treat.

While Harry knew what his friend meant, Draco, being the scion of Noble house, did not.

"You are such a pervert, Ronald - it certainly doesn't look like man bits, moron." The blond said, his comment triggering a burst of uncontrollable laugher from the entire Slytherin table, even Daphne couldn't stop a smile cracking her beautiful face.

Ron stared at his friend incredulously.

"Mate, you don't know what Spotted Dick is?"

Harry, who successfully fought off the urge to laugh before the last question, started to howl madly, tears leaking from his eyes.

After the hunger of student body was sated, the food disappeared.

Dumbledore got on his feet again.

"Khm-khm. Is everyone well-fed and lazily sleepy now?" there were a positive jangle of agreement from the younger generation. "Excellent! As always, there are a few notices that I have to give out, so I must ask for your precious attention."

"Our esteemed caretaker, Mr Filch has notified me that the list of items, prohibited on the Hogwarts grounds, has been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. You may find the full list of four hundred and thirty-seven items in Mr Filch's office, Room 234, Ground Floor."

"Forbidden Forest is as forbidden as always, and the village of Hogsmeade is out of bounds to all the students below third year."

"The next piece of news might be unpleasant for you – the inter-house Quidditch Cup is canceled for current year." A chain of surprised gasps followed this statement.

"But don't you be so sad – the reason for such thing is the great and important event that our school will proudly host this year. Dear students, it's a great pleasure for me to inform you that the..."

There was a loud bang of thunderclap again, and the double doors of the Hall opened roughly, making every head turn towards the hero of occasion.

"No way!" Draco whispered, looking at the person who stood at the entrance and was evidently a man, leaning on a long staff, dressed in a long black cloak, which was wet because of the storm that still was raging outside.

The man started making his way towards the staff table, lowering his hood and shaking his mane of dark grey hair. Every time he made a step forward with his right leg a dull clunk echoed throughout the Great Hall. He shook Dumbledore's hand and quietly said something to him.

Another flash of lightning revealed the face of stranger.

"Bloody Hell!" Harry whispered, stunned by what he glimpsed.

His expression was a perfect two-words explanation of the condition in which the grizzled wizard was - the man seemed as if he was scrolled in a meat grinder: half of his nose was missing, his mouth looked like a diagonal gash, every inch of his skin was scarred, and he had artificial right leg, to boot.

But the most disturbing feature of this man was his eyes – one small, dark and sheen, the other large, round, unblinking and bright blue. The latter was moving on its own constantly, seemingly not dependent on his counterpart.

After a quick exchange of words between two old wizards, they sat down. The strange man occupied the place on Dumbledore's right side and started to eat, poking the food with a small knife, which he pulled out of the pocket.

"May I introduce our new professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts – Alastor Moody!" At first only Albus and Hagrid were clapping, but Harry swiftly followed his mentor's example, his friends and four certain girls (one blonde, one red, two brunette – black and brown) supported him and, a little bit later, the rest of the great hall politely applauded.

Dumbledore slightly nodded and smiled at Harry, proud for his pupil's dignity.

He continued his speech.

"As I was saying, our great school will be hosting a great event this year -" here he stopped for a moment for the sake of drama "- the Tri-Wizard Tournament!"

There was an almost tangible silence, which was abruptly ripped to shreds by the loud cheering of students.

Albus explained the origins and rules of the Tournament then – everyone, well almost everyone, was drinking in every word of the old wizard.

"The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their candidates in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Hallowe'en. The Goblet of Fire, the impartial judge, will decide who are the most worthy to compete for the Cup, the Immortal Glory, and a thousand galleons!"

There was a noise of activity from the Gryffindor table – Weasley twins were already planning how they could bypass the 'Only Seventeen and Up' age restriction.

"Once again, I must ask you all to extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and give all the help you can to our Hogwarts Champion. 'Tempus' Oh, it's almost one AM now! Go to bed, all of you!"

The students started getting on their feet and leaving the Hall.

That night Harry slept like a baby, getting a feeling once again that it was one of the last calm nights in his life.

* * *

><p>"<strong>CONSTANT VIGILANCE!<strong>" their new Defence professor roared suddenly.

It was Friday afternoon Slytherin-Gryffindor double Defence Against the Dark Arts Class, and by the first fifteen minutes of it, Harry had made one conclusion already – their new teacher was as utterly paranoid as he was completely ugly.

"Granger!" Alastor called the cold girl with long brown hair bound in ponytail.

The girl calmly stood up.

"Trying to hide some _filthy dark secrets_, aren't you?" he shouted, apparently the concept of tact was foreign to him.

"This question has nothing to do with the subject, _professor_." she replied, her eyes burning madly.

"**This **is one of the darkest things in all the Wizarding World so don't you try to turn the arrows at me with some subject nonsense, girl!" he boomed, his vibrant right eye moving spinning in its socket so fast that it literally blurred.

Hermione was dangerously close to just making a roasted steak out of the grizzled man, but Harry stopped them both, standing up and casting a loud clapping noise.

**CLAP!**

"Professor, while I agree with you about **this **being the dark magic and one of the most dangerous of its many kinds, I am sure that our headmaster will gladly explain the reason Ms Granger remains a student of our finest institution if you ask him directly." he said looking directly into professor's eyes.

"Bah! Potter, you are truly the Dumbledore's apprentice! You seem to know well how to speak in this all-fancy way." Alastor replied. "Let us all see if you willpower as great as your speaking skills are, boy. Do you accept the challenge of fighting off my Imperius?"

"On the condition that you will vow that you won't tell anybody about Hermione's.. _condition_, if I win." he suggested.

"Alright, but if you loose, I will make you dance a waltz with a female mountain troll and make the information about your bushy haired know-it-all friend public!"

"Deal"

'Imperio!' the ex-auror cast.

The feeling of loosing all the responsibility, care, love, conscience wrapped around his mind.

"_C'mon, jump on your left foot, Harry! It's so easy.. Just do as I ask – there is no reason to resist.." _a sweet voice reverberated in his head.

"_I.. will.. _**NOT!**" Potter roared the last word aloud, shrugging off the Unforgivable.

Ron and Draco wore bored expressions on their faces – they would never believe that their friend who survived Killing Curse could not resist the 'mere' Imperio. Daphne started to fancy the green-eyed wizard even more than before. Hermione hid her surprise quickly: probably she found some logical explanation already. Moody was grinning madly - a fearsome sight: those who were unprepared could faint out of horror upon seeing his twisted lip-less smile. The rest of class was thunderstruck.

"**Outstanding**, Potter! Never before have I met such young wizard dismiss 'Imperio' like it is an annoying insect! Fifty points to Slytherin! And, as I promised – _I solemnly swear to not tell anything about Hermione Granger special condition or the reason for it!_"

The bright flash of magic sealed the vow.

"You have seen the Imperius Curse a few moments ago. Let me show you the remaining two. **Any volunteers?**HAHAHA! Just some very old Pureblood joke."

_**AN: Dear readers, thank you all for your reviews – I am most delighted!**_

_**Hm.. sounds gay no?**_

_**Dumbledore's feast speech: I know it is partly (mostly) copied from the canon, but the fanged frisbees and ever-bashing boomerangs sound so funny!**_

_**About Daphne: I know, she is awkward, but I try to portray her this way – there is no way that such a solitary and asocial person may be a master of arranging her own personal life. She just doesn't have enough empirical experience.**_

_**Fleur: the quarter veela will enter into the life of Harry Potter – she is the last one though. No Narcissa or Bellatrix, sorry! Each one is old enough to be his mother or even great-aunt, for God's sake!**_

_**Ginnymort: I am planning to make the confrontations between Daphne and Ginny and Fleur quite frequent – any suggestions (reasons, places, level of violence) would be great.**_

_**I plan to write the next sorting song in some exotic way, probably it will be a collection of 3-4 tankas. They are lyrical, not rhymed, but have a great potential for my antics.**_

_**Oh, here's the most simple example of tanka.**_

_There is no weed,_

_So I am so sad again._

_Give me a gun,_

_And leave me alone:_

_I will pull the trigger now._

_**AN(02.10.2011): fixed some little mistakes. Stupid built-in editor of FFN turns half of my hard work into shit. REVIEW!=)**_


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter Five: Bloody Hell, what is this 'Booyabes' thing, mates? (Bonjour, Je m'appelle Fleur Delacour!)_

_**AN: Sorry, people, no silly French accent in my fic – I think JKR (God bless the woman) overplayed it, but HO(!) I will imitate heavy Slavic accent for you, dear readers=). Remember Karkaroff is Englishmen, though his surname surely is Russian-made-French (Karkarov - Karkaroff) so he doen't twist English. **_

October 30th came faster than Harry thought it would, so here he was, standing near the Black Lake with whole student body and staff, and awaiting soon arrival of guests from abroad. The weather that day was exceeding all expectations – on the one to ten scale of crappiness it was eleven point five – the strong frosty wind promised to bestow cold and flu on anyone who wasn't in warm headdress.

The Black Lake's usually smooth and calm surface was harshly disturbed by something huge underneath. A magnificent, if a little bit gloomy, ship emerged from large splash of lake's murky water. It (the ship) slowly began closing to the shore. Once it did, a massive anchor was thrown into water and some people, apparently Durmstrang students since they were all dressed in heavy fur coats, unhurriedly disembarked from the ship.

A middle-aged man was in the head of the strange crowd. He was of average heght, with cold black eyes and greyed black hair, dressed in fancy expensive robes.

"Albus, it's so nice to see you again, my dear friend!" The man shook Dumbledore's hand, patting the old wizard on shoulder friendly. Too friendly. Harry was ready to bet his Firebolt on a fact that there was some history between the two.

"Karkaroff. He used to be a Death Eater, before he betrayed his associates. He bargained his freedom once he was caught by aurors by telling them the names of many death eaters. If, I mean **when**, the Dark Lord will return this guy will be a dead man." Draco quietly said to Harry.

"It's him! Look!" Potter heard somebody exclaiming excitedly. Scanning the newcomers, he understood why his schoolmates were so trilled – Viktor Krum, in flesh and blood, was standing next to his headmaster, his face absolutely expressionless and broad figure relaxed. But Harry wasn't a star-struck moron, nor his best friends were, so the trio continued their quiet chatting to kill time.

Thunderous neighing made everyone look up at the sky. There, several majestic carriages with abraxans, huge golden coloured winged horses, harnessed to them rapidly flew towards the crowd. They landed in a surprisingly soft way – surely some very good charm work was involved there - and their doors opened.

A gigantic woman stepped out of the biggest carriage. Dumbledore and Karkaroff kissed the back of her hand, the latter after the former, and the three engaged in a small talk whilst the Beauxbatons students were leaving the carriages. The fact that most of them were girls, and attractive ones to boot, triggered a wave of excited murmur from the young men.

Then, Harry saw _her_: a dazzlingly beautiful platinum-blonde girl with sapphire blue eyes exited the carriage that her headmistress left a minute ago. She was proudly walking with unearthly grace, moving her long legs that mesmerized our poor hero completely. He was snapped from his delightful trance by Draco, who slapped the back of his head sharply.

"Wipe the drool from your mouth, Harry." he whispered.

The green-eyed wizard blinked thrice uncomprehendingly and shook his head.

"Thank you." Potter said.

"We are even now, Harry. Your reaction on this veela girl is strange – you resisted a hundred of them only to look like a fool in front of a single one."

Harry hid his face on arms, annoyed by his own idiocy – he became too confident about his skills and the life chose to kick him in the ass today. The girl, whose skin seemed to radiate soft light a second before, became just another very pretty girl in his eyes.

Dumbledore led the guests into the castle, continuing his conversation with his foreign colleagues. The students of Hogwarts followed after them quickly – they all were obviously cold and hungry.

* * *

><p>The visitors were most impressed by the Great Hall, but who wasn't? Beauxbatons students sat with Ravenclaw while Durmstrang delegation accompanied Slytherin. The Bulgarians were a quiet folk, well most of them were, but the snakes found a common language with them very fast – apparently they had similar spirits. Though Harry didn't care about them at all, nor Draco and Ron did. All the Trio was caring about at the moment was what would appear on the long tables soon – Harry was told by his mentor that some French and Eastern-European foods would be added to make the guests feel more comfortable. But the world wasn't spinning around them – first things always come first: Dumbledore stood up from his chair and began his speech.<p>

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! It's my greatest pleasure to welcome you all, especially our dear guests" he smiled at the foreign students " to Hogwarts. I hope that your stay in our great school will be most delightful.

"As soon as the feast is ceased, the Tri-Wizard Tournament will be officially opened. Now please do enjoy the Feast!" he sat down and started speaking with Karkaroff about something. Harry only now noticed that the staff table had four more chairs – two were already occupied by Karkaroff and Maxime. Apparently they were expecting some other special guests.

The blonde girl, who made Harry look like a fool just half an hour ago, walked to them slowly. She was the last person that The-Boy-Who-Lived wanted getting to know at the moment, though the fact that both Ginny and Daphne were looking at her with not blinking studying eyes entertained the young man.

"Excuse me, do you need this Bouillabaisse?" she asked him. Her voice was even more magical than he imagined – melodious and utterly pleasant to ear. He calmly looked in her eyes.

"Yes, sure, you may have it all." he replied and turned his head back to his friends. Ron wasn't even paying the girl any attention – he had his passion, thank you very much, and Draco learned a bitter lesson about veela on the World Championship very well, so..

"Thank you!" she said and gave Harry a smile that showed him her even white teeth. The brilliant smile left her face as soon as she understood that he wasn't looking at her. She returned to her place at the Ravenclaw table and asked her most recent acquaintance, Penelope Clearwater – a nice brown-haired seventh year girl and the Ravenclaw prefect, a question.

"Who is this boy?"

Penelope stared at her incredulously in disbelief.

"My-my, Fleur, don't you know Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived? Where do you come from? Cabbage?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Eyes of the French girl opened widely.

"**The **Harry Potter! I would have never thought that he is so.. so.." she couldn't find the right word.

"Handsome? Yeah, he is quite a nice catch, but do remember that the two crazy and dangerous witches already fancy him – Daphne Greengrass and Ginny Weasley." she subtly pointed at them with her index finger. "The former comes from a dynasty of dark wizards and witches, the latter is a pure maniac and has a very disturbing set of eyes – you must see them yourself to understand me. These two had a loud and hot argument on the train trip to here, as I heard. Both were bestowed with fiery temper by Merlin so I'm not surprised at all. You don't want to be an obstacle in their way, trust me."

Fleur took a glance at the green-eyed wizard again – yes, he was handsome.. She once saw him on the photography in the Witch Weekly with this Lockhart man, but then he was twelve – he obviously had changed greatly in mere two years. In all honesty, he looked like somebody of her age.

* * *

><p>Whilst the girls were discussing him, Harry was talking with his two best friends.<p>

"Bloody Hell, what's this 'Boyabess' thing, mates?" Ron asked.

"It's French fish stew." Draco explained.

"Oh, I thought it's some kind of their croissant thingies."

"If Blondie never showed it to me during our stay in Malfoy manor prior to Second Year, I would have never guessed that Bouillabaisse is a variation of fish stew.." Harry commented.

"Why then haven't I seen it?" Ron questioned.

"You overslept the dinner that day." Draco answered.

Harry nodded in confirmation.

The two empty chairs were finally filled – Ludo Bagman and Mr Crouch took their places, the former next to Karkaroff, the latter next to Madame Maxime.

The feast finally finished and all the dishes disappeared in a blink of an eye. Dumbledore again got up on his feet.

"The Tournament is about to start, my dear friends. But before we bring in the Casket I would like to explain a few things to you.

"Casket?" Ron whispered questioningly.

"Yes, you know, the casket that contains the Goblet." Draco replied quietly.

The students that were sitting around the boys shushed them.

The Hogwarts headmaster introduced the two most recent newcomers and the students applauded politely.

"Mr Crouch and Mr Bagman had been working hard during the last few months on the arrangements of the Tournament. They will join Madame Maxime, Professor Karkaroff and myself as two additional judges. We five will evaluate the champions' performance."

There was a complete silence. The whole Great Hall was listening to the words of Dumbledore. The old man turned to the caretaker.

"Mr Filch, if you will be so kind."

The grumpy man brought a gem-encrusted chest to the front of the staff table.

"The champions will face three tasks, each one will be a test of their will, magic prowess, wit and ability to cope with great danger. The tasks will be spaced throughout the school year and..." Albus was explaining the rules and dangers of the Tournament to the students for the next few minutes.

"Each champion will represent his or her school and will be chosen by an impartial selector – the Goblet of Fire."

Dumbledore pulled out his wand and opened the casket magically and snatched a round large wooden cup that was filled to its brims with bright blue flames, that were dancing slowly, making shadows of everyone, who was close to it, play on the wall behind the staff table. He placed it on this piece of furniture and started talking again.

"The Goblet will be placed in the Entrance Hall tonight – those who wish to participate should feel free to enter their names. The procedure requires you to write your name and the name of your school on a piece of parchment and throw it into the Goblet. You have twenty four hours – tomorrow night, on Halloween, the names of three most worthy will be known by everyone here. I must inform you though that everyone under the age of seventeen will be stopped by the Age Line that I myself will draw. Now, everyone needs going to bed – tomorrow you will need your strengths at their full." he finished his speech and gave our hero a look which obviously meant 'To my office, my boy. Now'.

Harry told his friends to go to the dorms without him, and started slowly walking to the headmaster's office. He didn't notice that a pair of deep blue eyes was following him until he left the Hall.

* * *

><p>Penelope waved her hand slowly in front of Fleur's face.<p>

"Hey!" the brown haired girl clicked her fingers a few times. "Are you here? Hello?"

"Ah? What? Oh, I just was deep in thoughts" the blonde said, rubbing her temples.

"We need to go now."

They stood up and left the Great Hall, parting their ways in the Entrance Hall – Fleur went to the carriages, Penelope returned to her dorms.

* * *

><p>"Enter, Harry."<p>

The office of the old wizard hadn't changed a lot: same portraits of his predecessors, some fancy instruments whose purpose Harry didn't know nor he wanted to. His mentor was sitting behind his large table as usually, his blue eyes behind half-moon spectacles... well, all his body language showed the young man that they were going to discuss a serious matter. Harry conjured a mahogany chair and sat atop of it - he learned the trick from Albus during the stay in Dumbledore's home. It warmed the heart of the old man, returning some twinkle in his eyes.

"My boy, tonight, at three am, is the perfect time for you to subtly put your name into the Goblet. The Age Barrier won't be a problem for you - you are seventeen, but be sure that somebody sees you. Tomorrow, when you will become the Hogwarts champion, you must look greatly surprised, maybe even enraged, as if you are completely dissatisfied with the turn of events. Take this." Albus pulled out a phial with golden liquid and gave it to Harry.

"What is it?" the green-eyed wizard asked.

" 'Felix Felicis' - the Fortune Potion, extremely hard to make and toxic in large doses, but its benefits completely overshadow its complexity – depending on dosage can make you exceptionally lucky for a period of time, up to twenty four hours. I want you to drink it before the dinner. The potion will ensure that **you **won't make some mistake. I will cover you up in the face of public – just **do** look as if you really were surprised." Dumbledore exhaled slowly and a smile showed up on his lips. "Lemon Sherbet, Harry?"

"Yes, please... Thanks."

* * *

><p>Harry had written a letter to his godfather so he went to the West Tower where the Owlery was located. A distinct odour of owl faeces permeated the large room and though Potter surely wasn't a sissy, the smell irritated him a lot. The young man wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.<p>

"Hedwig, my girl, come here!" he called.

His beautiful snowy white owl flew to him and perched on his right shoulder, nipping his ear lobe affectionately. She hooted happily and stared at him with her enormous eyes, awaiting his words.

"Hedwig, I need you to bring this letter to Sirius." he said, caressing her gently. Once he had tied the letter to her leg, she flew away in the general direction of London.

He took out his invisibility cloak.

* * *

><p>There was a lot to do.<p>

The next morning found his godfather eating his breakfast, slowly shuffling the food with spoon. Yes, he was happy to be free and everything, but it was so** boring **now! Without the company of his godson there was nothing for him to do – sure, he could go out and find some adventures, but he was in no mood to do so. Or find a work.

Nah..

He heard a bird flap and sharply turned his head at the general direction of sound. A letter from Harry!

He quickly untied the letter from Hedwig's leg and gave her some water and bacon.

"Let's see.." he muttered and began reading.

_Hello Sirius, _

_I hope you are fine. Well, as much as such an old fart can be._

_Have you seduced a veela as you bragged you would?_

_No need to answer – of course you haven't._

_I'm okay, a bit excited even – Champions of the Tournament _

_will be announced tomorrow. _

_It's such a shame I can't compete because of my age. _

_Do not sit on your ass doing nothing for too long:_

_People say haemorrhoid stings like hell. _

_Bye, _

_Harry._

"Why, you little..." Sirius erupted swearing like a shoemaker that hit his finger with his hammer accidentally. He immediately began writing the response. Unfortunately, Hedwig had left already, so when the man finished his letter he, not having his own owl, had no one to send it with. Kreacher was forgotten, of course.

* * *

><p>Fleur Delacour sat behind the desk in her room: inspiration palpably hit her in the head when she saw the youngest hero of the Wizarding World – if somebody would know that the Veela of Beauxbatons had a silly interest in writing poetry and was not-so-latent romantic, they would die out of laugher.<p>

"No.." she muttered and crossed out a line she didn't like. She had been unpopular in her school because of her heritage, but keeping a promise she gave to her parents - that she wouldn't speak French during her stay in England – made her school-mates avoid her by 5 feet at minimum. She started scribbling again: the blonde girl really hoped that one certain green-eyed wizard would like it.

* * *

><p>Ron Weasley had never laughed so much in his entire fourteen years of life, not that Draco Malfoy had had, too.<p>

"..you imprisoned me within!" Draco pompously exclaimed.

"My only love, my only dream.." Ron said dramatically.

"You alone." they chorused and burst in laugher again.

Ron wiped tears from his eyes with his sleeve.

"Hey, falcon" the redhead called his famous best friend, mimicking the flapping of wings – he really had a talent in acting. "Who do you think could send you _this_?" A long meaty finger pointed at the letter that The-Boy-Who-Lived held in his hands, reading it again and again, not paying the tall guy or the blond any attention.

"But, who?" Harry asked no one in particular. Whilst his two friends thought the letter from some stranger was silly and idiotic, he didn't think so. It (the letter) was saturated with aroma of fine women's perfume, intoxicating our hero better than any wine, lifting his mood high to the skies. It made him breathe fully, forgetting all his mundane problems.

Her (It was she... _Right?_) letter warmed his heart greatly – yes, he did receive love letters from many girls, but written in such way? The young man was sure it wasn't Ginny, nor it was Daphne – the very idea of those two writing poetry made him cackle ironically. They were smart, of course, but his tongue couldn't turn to call them creative – absolute opposite.

_As an already doomed prey of proud falcon_

_Can't fight the iron grip that holds it,_

_I can not deny a cell _

_You have imprisoned me within._

_It doesn't have stone walls,_

_Dementors or Aurors and locked doors._

_No, it's much worse:_

_I do not even wish to fight for my escape._

_And I'm happy here _

_Like I have never been before._

_This cell, of course, is feelings towards you,_

_My only love, my only dream:_

_You alone._

_Now I have only purpose in my life:_

_To make you rise me to the highest skies._

_I do not fear death, humiliation, pain -_

_Just you rejecting me_

_And leaving me in wane!_

He felt.. flattered. A small smile wasn't going to leave his face for a long time..

* * *

><p>Everyone in the Great Hall went silent as Dumbledore got on his feet. He wasn't his usual jovial self at the moment – seriousness was radiating from him. Many observers only then saw the other side of Albus.<p>

The one which was cold and no-nonsense taking.

The Goblet of Fire was carefully brought in front of the staff table again by Hagrid . The old wizard was precise – as soon as he approached the Goblet, its flames changed in colour and spat a piece of parchment, whose corners were a little burnt. Dumbledore skilfully snatched it from the air and read the name.

"The Champion of Beauxbatons – Fleur Delacour."

Male half of the young people in the Hall applauded enthusiastically; it seemed that the female one wasn't as friendly.

The blonde gracefully floated to the side room, holding her head high proudly. As soon as she entered, though, her shoulders fell.

"What have I got myself into?" Fleur thought.

Another piece was caught by the Hogwarts headmaster.

"The champion of Durmstrang – Viktor Krum."

The wave of ovation was deafening this time – the guy obviously had a lot of fans.

The youngest global quidditch star confidently entered the same room.

The last piece of parchment was read.

"The Champion of Hogwarts -" Dumbledore's eyebrows rose in surprise. ".. Harry Potter."

Complete silence fell on the Hall – the kind of silence which you can fill a cup with and drink.

Aforementioned young man had been rehearsing his surprised act for the whole night – he expertly dropped a fork from his left hand looking thunderstruck.

He had very good friends – Ron and Draco played along very well – their expressions made Harry wonder if they three had a potential to become great wizarding actors. Maybe Brighton's Academy was better suited for them?

He slowly stood up and walked to the headmaster, who had an angry look on his face.

"But professor, how could it be?" he asked disbelievingly. "I.. I s-s-urely haven't enter my n-n-name!"

"I.. Go to the side room – we will talk in a few minutes." the old wizard whispered.

Harry didn't hear any angry exclamations from his house-mates – they weren't expecting from him anything less. His head of House looked as satisfied as his stone-cut face would allow him, meaning he wore the most sinister smirk of yet.

* * *

><p>When Krum entered the room (<em>the rhyme wasn't intended<em>), Fleur quickly regained her cool appearance and nodded to him. He returned the nod and sat on the chair in front of the fireplace.

She was completely taken by surprise when her most desired walked inside and stood abruptly, rooted to the spot. The girl was a complete mess when it came to the relationships of opposite sexes – for Merlin's sake, she had thought that children came from cabbage until she turned eleven! She was worried, and when she was worried she did stupid things. It took the most of her willpower to not stutter.

"Do they need something?" she asked.

Harry turned his piercing gaze to her, making her blush and turn eyes away: it was as if he saw right through her all being.

"Yes and no." he replied.

Krum, who too was watching the young man, shook his head irritably – these foreigners made him sick sometimes with their indirect nonsense.

"And vot duz it meen?" the Durmstrang Champion asked.

"That you will understand everything in a moment."

And Harry was right: as soon as he finished his sentence, the trio of school heads entered, with content Snape and surprised McGonagall. Madame Maxime and Karkaroff were pleased by the turn of events entirely. Why not? It was a clear fact for the two that no fourth year would ever stand a chance in the kind of competition the Tri-Wizard Tournament was. Dumbledore put his hands on Harry's shoulders and shook them.

"Harry, did you put your name in the Goblet?" he asked him directly.

"No, professor Dumbledore – professor Snape can confirm that I was nowhere near it." Potter answered, looking in the black eyes of his head of House.

"Mr Potter was personally escorted by me to the Slytherin dorms once we finished his personal lesson." Severus said, his voice its usual cold self.

"What kind of lesson?" Karkaroff asked. He seemed to do this just to annoy the man – obviously he didn't care nor he wanted the full investigation.

"I teach Mr Potter Occlumency, because he has regular nightmares."

"Do you teach it to everyone?" Maxime questioned the calm man.

"Everyone _capable to grasp_."

"Then who entered him?" Fleur got into the conversation.

"The Tournament is notorious for its mortality rate and there are many of those who want to harm Potter." a hoarse voice said. Everyone turned at its direction and saw Alastor Moody himself in all his crippled glory. "I personally put about quarter of these bastards in Azkaban, reuniting another quarter with Merlin." The seasoned Auror veteran flashed a bloodthirsty smile. "Although I must admit that some of them successfully evaded the force of Justice." He sent a burning glare to Karkaroff, who gulped uncomfortably.

Mad Eye seemed to utterly terrify the quarter-veela, whilst the Bulgarian apparently put him in his 'Favourite Foreigners' list already.

"Zat's vot I am tolking about." Krum whispered.

Ludo Bagman and Mr Crouch entered the room – the whole event reminded Harry of some theatrical farce that somehow came true right before his eyes.

"They even entered in little groups, for Merlin's sake!" he thought.

"Extraordinary! Never before such thing happened – the Goblet used to be thought absolutely foolproof!" Bagman exclaimed. The man's enthusiasm made Harry associate him with a ball of pure positive energy that bounced around the room and fed everyone with its positiveness.

"Is there some way to not participate in the Tournament once you are chosen?" Harry asked.

"No, there isn't. Once you are in, you must participate – the magic binding contract will make sure of it. You do or you become a squib." Mr Crouch replied. His facial expression was a little detached as his tired eyes with dark bags under them were: the man looked as if he was in deep thoughts.

Karkaroff had to kill the urge to rub his hands in content – everything was going much better than he had expected. Maxime would seem to be not affected by Crouch's statement at all if a little quirk of her mouth corners didn't appear on her face.

Though these two weren't the only people who reacted that way: Harry was thanking Merlin and **Felix**; Albus was hiding his satisfied smile behind his beard from everyone; Fleur was thinking about the all-new opportunities that were opened for her now; Viktor was studying Harry with his unblinking stare.

What about Snape? Severus' head was halved by the most pleased smirk that had ever been plastered on his face – the Potions Master was very satisfied by the most recent turn of events – **his **snake was the Hogwarts Champion, not one of those Hufflepuff dunderheads, not a Ravenclaw egghead too and, thanks Merlin, not one of Gryffindor arrogant little bastards!

"The First Task will take place on November Twenty-Fourth. It will test your daring and let everybody know just how much courage you have in the face of unknown." Mr Crouch instructed. His cold gaze seemed to be turned to everyone at the same time. "The Champions are not allowed to ask for help from their peers, nor from the professors. The Champions can be armed for the First Task only with their wands. They will be informed about the Second Task at the end of the First. The Champions are exempt from the Final Tests due to the time consumption and the demanding of the Tournament."

"That's all, Albus." He turned to the headmaster of Hogwarts.

"Are you going to stay here, Barty?" the old man asked.

"No, I have an important appointment today which will require my full attention. Weatherby will replace me for now.."

"Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, tea?" Dumbledore suggested.

The two nodded positively and the trio went to the headmaster's office.

All the room occupants went to do whatever they needed to.

* * *

><p>As Harry left the Great Hall, he saw Hermione, who was leaning on the wall near the double doors. Apparently she wanted something from him.<p>

"Hi, Harry. Do you realize where have you got yourself into?" she asked him.

"Aww.. Don't worry, Hermione, everything is planned through and through." Potter reassured the genuinely worried girl and put his hands on her shoulders, looking into her fiery yellow eyes. "You've stopped wearing contacts." He noted.

"Yes. Dumbledore acquired a certificate stating that I have the 'Aurum Lumina' – a rare magic deviation." she whispered, placing her right hand on his chest.

"It's good to be friend of mine, no?" he said, cupping her right cheek gently. Her eyes widened.

"Harry!" She pushed him playfully. "You've become so arrogant!"

They were unceremoniously interrupted by Viktor Krum, who went into the Entrance Hall, and Fleur Delacour, who was right behind him.

They both were thunderstruck, for different reasons though: usually imperturbable Bulgarian quidditch star was looking curiously at the brown-haired girl; the beautiful quarter-veela was examining her 'possible contestant' from head to toe.

"Well, I'll see you later, Harry." Hermione bid him goodbye, kissing his cheek, and headed towards her dorms.

"Yes, later." Harry said and started going to the Main Entrance. He heard a quick succession of light footsteps clicking behind him as he stepped his foot on the soil outside.

"Harry, wait!"

He spun around quickly.

"Fleur? How may I help you?"

The voluptuous blonde caught him up, and relied on her knees, breathing heavily. She evidently didn't have a habit to run a lot, or maybe, _just maybe_, she wanted to show him her gorgeous chest...

Her deep blue eyes looked up at him.

"I'm a bit.. disoriented here, in your school. Would you mind showing me around?" she asked. "If you aren't busy right now, of course." was added quickly.

He smiled warmly to her.

"Sure. Let's see what I can show you first..."

Harry operatively put his right arm around her shoulders.

He wasn't so straightforward with girls usually, but

Who doesn't risk doesn't drink champagne..

**_AN2: thank you all for reviews._**

**_Serialkeller: The horcrux and Ginny's soul are merged into one, so no one will suck it out from Voldegin. About Snape - a kick from steed, with Snape atop of it. Very simple, my friend)_**

**_I hope it is a unique experience for you to see Poet!Fleur, just wait until the end of the Fourth Year - I solemnly swear there will be a lot of surprises, silly and no so much._**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Six: Between Pain and Pleasure

Hogwarts was simply **big**. Not so much in size - of three great schools of the Wizarding World, she was the smallest, but every foot of her had more history in it than in any other. Partly because she was the first true school of magic, open to everyone who wished to learn. Partly because so many great people began their path to greatness from here - some from the library, some the pitch, or the potions lab. Great scholars, sportsmen, alchemists, politicians and artists of Magic Britain and not only it, all made their first steps, be them their first flying lessons, potions, connections or learnt incantations, right there in this majestic castle. The school's history went back for more than a thousand years and would go for at least another thousand forward. Many had tried to sabotage her, disrupt her, destroy her, but nobody had ever succeeded.

Harry introduced this huge world to Fleur, revealing the whole new universe in the universe. He often shared his own opinion when it was appropriate to add some colours and spices into this stream of rather dry historical facts of Hogwarts. But every stream started somewhere and ended somewhere - the time had come for Harry to change topics, though it surely wasn't a problem for him.

"... You can see why it's called Black if you look closely at the water. Nobody knows why it's dark and nobody will ever find out probably. One thing I'm very sure about is that my ancestors loved to state the most obvious."

She covered her mouth, throwing her head a little bit back, and laughed. Her melodious, like ringing of tiny bells, laugh made a strange feeling tickle his chest from inside. It could be described in a single word. The word so incomprehensible for any rationalist yet so simple for any wizard or witch. Magic. The fact her tender skin and lustrous blond hair were illuminating subtly in the half-light of evening, blue eyes were sparkling in amusement, just intensified his impression. .

_"Merlin, she is perfect.." _he though _"thank you, for creating such beauty"_

She was very different from what he thought of her when he had seen her for the first time. He had thought he was arrogant - she was shy, he'd thought she didn't have a lot in her skull - she had. Alas, everything very enjoyable was way too short. Otherwise it wouldn't be so memorable. They needed to go - the night had sneaked closely imperceptibly without the pair noticing it until the last moment. If the night was an opponent, Alastor surely would appear suddenly, shouting his favourite **CONSTANT VIGILANCE** reminder.

Harry slowly conducted Fleur to the Beauxbaton's Carriages which hadn't changed at all - same gold-trimmed snowy-white wood, same abraxans - oh wait! - the gigantic flying horses weren't harnessed to the carriages: they freely fed on the stacks of oat that were put by somebody (probably by Hagrid) nearby. They paid the closing pair of student a little to no attention. The said pair had stopped in front of the golden steps which led to the entrance of the carriage which the champion of Beauxbatons and her Headmistress.

"Well, I hope I haven't bored you to the death.." Potter said, scratching his nape nervously.

_"What are you waiting for?"_ voice in his head suspiciously similar to one of Weasley twins' told him. "_Kiss her, kiss her, you idiot!"_

The quarter-veela stood there, smiling at the young man brightly. She slowly reduced the distance between them, and kissed his cheek, standing on her tiptoes.

"Don't you think I would be dead then while some auror would escort you to the remand? Have nice dreams, Harry Potter.." she whispered in his ear. These simple words made him shiver as if the temperature fell by thirty degrees at once.

The sound of the carriage door shutting snapped him out of his trance as if somebody slapped him in the face. Hard. He felt like he forgot something.

_"But what? And what time is it?" _he asked himself, frustrated.

'Tempus'

The silvery numbers appeared in the air in front of him. It was 8.12 pm.

**He was late!**

Harry ran as fast as his feet and magic allowed him. He made every passer byes freak out resembling a black haired lightning.

**He was so dead!**

* * *

><p>Albus Dumbledore was humming a tune airily. He conjured a tea set on his table and a comfortable chair in front of it with a slight wave of his long white wand. Magic surely was making the life of the old man so much easier.<p>

_"Only if my another wand still worked too.."_ he thought, looking down. _"With __all its wonders, magic can't cure some of the most simple things." _

Fawkes, being in his adult phase, perched on his right shoulder, and joined his master, thrilling a melody.

"You, my friend, are truly lucky to never get old and weak permanently." Albus said, petting his fiery familiar.

The bird thrilled affirmatively.

"And you also left your conscience where you were born from"

The bird thrilled affirmatively, again.

The entrance door opened suddenly, revealing the green-eyed latecomer, who was also the old wizard's apprentice. His black hair was a mess. The sweat that was dripping from his forehead was only adding to his image.

"Sorry, Albus - I'm late.." Harry said heavily, being out of breath.

"It's all right, my boy. Why are you still standing? Have a seat - there is no truth in feet." Dumbledore replied, pointing at the conjured chair. "Tea, lemon sherbet?"

"Yes, please.. Thank you" Harry had accepted a hot cup with steaming liquid and snatched one sweet from the bowl on the table.

"How is the young lady I've seen you with recently?" Albus asked, his blue eyes full of kindness.

"Fleur? So much different from what I thought about her before today."

"First impressions tend to be wrong, Harry. Never categorize people just by your first thoughts. Only when you don't have the luxury of time you need to be quick in it." Albus mentored the young wizard. "And we, Time magi, have plenty of it, don't we?" the famous twinkle appeared in his eyes again.

"What about the other two - young Mses. Greengrass and Weasley. Have you forgotten them already, my boy? It's not good to just discard other excellent variants."

"No I haven't. I just try to deal with one at a time, Albus." Harry said, with his own mischievous twinkle in eyes.

"Very wise of you, Harry." the old wizard approved. "Now, to the more serious matters - the First Task is closing and you need to be fully prepared. It's no good for my apprentice to be burnt to the death."

"Salamanders?" Harry guessed.

Dumbledore shook his head.

"Dragons?"

Dumbledore nodded.

"I am sure you can handle yourself well against a dragon, but I don't want the poor creature to suffer without any serious reason. Do be gentle with it."

"Of course, Albus." Harry agreed. "Is this all?"

"Yes, Harry."

"Have a great night"

"You too, my boy, you too.." Albus bid farewell absent-mindedly, returning to his thoughts about Merlin knows what.

* * *

><p><em>Pain is a weapon.<em>

_'Sectumsempra' _

The violet light appeared on the tip of her wand, glowing in the darkness of the night Forbidden Forest. She placed the wand over her head, gripping it with both hands tightly as if it was a broadsword.

_One._

A hundreds years old tree was cut to the roots.

_Two._

Some passing-by deer was decapitated with a harsh slash, its still convulsing heart pumping hot crimson red arterial blood out of its body.

_Three._

A two meters deep furrow in earth was plowed into existence.

_Four._

Everything in thirty feet radius from her, be it a tree or a rock, whatever or whoever, was severed with a giant invisible sword.

Crimson eyes darkened, a slight self-satisfied smirk appeared on the beautiful face.

"Magic of Numbers indeed.." Ginny whispered.

* * *

><p><em>Five thousands three hundreds eighty two square feet in total, seven connected rooms with twelve feet high ceiling - the whole house in you trunk! <em>

_The Dream Trunk! Today's Special offer - order it now and get a free goblin-made ward as a gift!_

Alastor Moody wasn't one of those people who could be persuaded easily, be it to buy something or whatever, but when he saw this advertisement in the Daily Prophet he just couldn't resist. And there wasn't even a day when he regretted buying this magic wonder for the hefty nine hundreds ninety nine galleons nine sickles and nine knuts price. He used the last room (which was also the smallest) for _interrogation_.

A simple wooden chair with a lot of pointy splinters for _extra comfort_, a few shelves with muggle construction tools - hammers, screwdrivers and (ahh, his favourite) pliers were only a few of them. A lone dim magic light was hovering under the ceiling right over the stool. A fifty gallons thick glass vessel, enforced by magic, full of concentrated sulfuric acid for _the_ _extra special_ _treatment_. The whole room was sound-isolated, both with ward and muggle sound isolation materials - just in case.

And it was very smart of him to spend so much time on sound-proofing - people tend to shout **loud **when you spill concentrated sulfuric acid on their bare feet.

His current guest was sorted by Alastor as one worthy of the extra special treatment (TEST). Poor man - people would think. If they just knew who he was, they would put him themselves into the said vessel instead.

Barty Crouch Jr. hadn't experienced TEST yet, but time was in plenty. Any exercise is bad without a good warm-up before it.

'Crucio'

Barty convulsed under the pain-inflicting curse. He felt as if thousands of fiery needles were digging under his skin, boiling his blood, tearing him apart.

Still, he wasn't one of the most trusted servants of his Lord for nothing. His iron will was helping him to not shout.

The pain had stopped. He heard heavy footsteps. Somebody grabbed his head by the hair, pulling it backwards so the light beamed right into his eyes.

"How do you feel, Barty?" a familiar voice asked him. The voice's owner was obviously mocking the "poor man".

Crouch Jr. spat blood on the stone floor of the room instead of answering.

"Now now, there is no need to dirty my room with your filthy death eater blood. _Evanesco._" The mix of blood and spit was vanished with a simple spell.

"Tell me, my dear friend, why did you attack me?"

"Sometimes I wonder why the first war had lasted for so long if even the members of the old fool's close circle are so stupid and can't see the obvious.." Crouch answered quietly, looking defiantly in the eyes of his torturer. "I wanted to kill you, stupid auror dog."

An almost sincere laugher filled the room, reverberating in Barty's head.

"And I always wonder why all the death eaters think they're smarter than me." Alastor said his both eyes, huge electric blue and normal brown, set on the man he interrogated. "Now, I ask you again - why did you attack me?"

"Go to hell.."

"Oh, I will one day, but not before you for sure." Alastor said. He conjured a glass vial and transfused the thick liquid from the vessel that stood in the far right corner. He cast a bubble head charm on himself and on the "Interrogated" - there was no need for the shit's death, at least for now. He vanished both Barty's shoes and turned his eyes to the face of now shoeless man. "Haven't any right answers come to the front of your mind?"

Barty looked indifferently at the glass vial in Moody's hand. He hadn't even noticed that there was a charm on his head or that his feet were now bare.

"Truth Serum? By its colour I can say now for sure that you aren't just stupid, you also lack any skill in the alchemy!"

A huge predatory smile almost split Alastor's head in half.

"It's actually a modification of the Truth Serum, my friend. Effectiveness was tripled, although there are plenty of new "side effects", so to speak." Moody played along. He slowly poured it on Barty's feet.

_Sulfuric Acid (H2SO4) chars the organic matter in contact with it.. _- a piece of text from muggle chemistry book flashed in grizzled auror's mind.

Then, the _**screaming**_ begun...

* * *

><p>Fleur Delacour was currently lying in her bed.<p>

Naked.

It was her silly habit, actually. She loved the way her bare skin was contacting with the silk of her bedclothes. A slight cool breeze was coming out of the room's half-opened window, caressing her body gently. All in all, it was a picture for which any teenage (and not so teenage, too) guy would kill to watch first-hand.

She was thinking about the most recent events that had happened in her life. Leaving France with her fellow classmates and their Headmistress, the welcoming feast, new friends, being chosen by the Goblet..

Harry...

He was younger, yet he was very mature, and these emerald eyes! And he could shrug off her allure - a great feat which showed his strong will. She knew he wasn't naturally resistant to it. He somehow was managing to overcome it - not once she had radiated her allure on him, but he hadn't even once changed in his face.

Was it love?

It wasn't for sure.

Yet.

* * *

><p>"Harry, I've chosen this day" which was Saturday, morning "and this particular time because there is not so much time left, and I wish that you will complete the task unscathed. I want you to perfect this technique in 5 days counting from today. It was created by Gellert Grindelwald. To show it, I must ask Fawkes to transfer us to the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest." Dumbledore said and extended his hand to Harry, who took it. Fawkes quickly perched on the old man's shoulder and moved them to their destination with a fiery flash.<p>

Once they appeared outside, Albus continued his lecture.

"As usual, my boy, I must ask you to not reveal this secret to everyone you meet. But of course you should understand it by now."

Harry made a magical oath again.

"I, Harry James Potter, swear on my magic that I will never reveal the magical technique Albus Wulfric Bryan Dumbledore will show in the next hour to anyone but my future apprentice, if I ever wish to have one, so mote it be."

"So mote it be" Dumbledore repeated. A bright flash of blue was a good enough verification for the pair so the older man continued.

"The Spell Barrage - it's a technique which allows its practician to cast tens of the same spell's replicas in a matter of few seconds by overpowering." He pointed his wand at the trees behind him.

_'Divido Raptim' _

Right before Harry's eyes the true show of raw magic power was happening - an almost stream line of cleaving charms left the wand of his mentor. The old wizard began slowly moving his hand to the right, cutting literally everything he pointed his wand at. When, after about fifteen seconds, he chose to stop there was a picture of total mayhem in the front.

"Now I want you to ask me some questions, my boy" Albus said, looking a bit tired, his breath a bit quicker than usual.

"What's the point if you've taught me the Time magic?" Harry asked, his left eyebrow lifting up in question.

"Sometimes you don't have much time, Harry. Other times there are there are a lot of opponents that you need to fight at the same time.." Dumbledore answered. "Most of the time, it's less power-consuming than changing the time flow. Every element of the barrage - by that I mean, every spell it includes - is weaker than a single cast one by about half, it's twice cheaper also."

"So how is it done?" Harry asked.

"When you cast a single spell you put in it a portion of your magic, perform required moves - these are needed, but what's the most vital is the intent. Intent shapes you power into some form and lets it happen."

"I think I understand it now, Albus."

"Do it then." The old man said, gesturing for Potter to continue.

_'Divido Raptim' _

A powerful cleaving charm was shot out from his wand, halving the tree in fifteen meters in the front. Yet it hadn't been a barrage.

"Don't think about just one spell, my boy, shape you intent into a continuous line, not a segment."

_'Divido Raptim' _

This time, it was completely different an almost solid stream of charms came out of his wand. Harry could feel the wand in his hand becoming fiery hot, overheating. He stopped after a few seconds, though he did cut in half several trees. He completely lost his breath, feeling the tiredness crushing on his shoulders instantly.

"Very good, my boy. I think it's enough for today. I want you to practice it not just until the First Task, but for the whole year."

"I will, Albus." Harry said and turned around, starting walking towards the castle, his dorms, shower. Yes, he needed a nice good cold shower right now..

"Oh, and Harry!" Dumbledore shouted to the young man who already was twenty feet away from him.

Harry turned around.

"I must confess, it's a great way to overcome dragon's magic resistance. Maybe the best" His mentor said with a knowing smile.

The protege returned the smile back, nodding his head.

* * *

><p>"Who's the boss?"<p>

"I am the boss."

"Who's the boss?"

"I am the boss."

Severus stood in front of the tall mirror he had in his office, speaking slowly with himself.

He smiled to himself.

Well, he thought it was a smile. In fact it was more like a bloodthirsty grin than a smile.

There was a knocking on the door.

'Tempus' 5 pm - Harry Potter came to his office to be taught the Mind Arts.

He straightened his robes up with a simple spell.

"Enter."

Indeed it was the Potter Jr.

"Good evening, professor Snape."

"Hello, Harry, have a seat." Snape said, sitting himself on the armchair in front of the fireplace and gesturing for the young man to occupy the opposite one. Harry did just that. "You will begin learning the Advanced Legilimency techniques. Learn well and you will be able to enter into the mind of your opponent without a wand. You will be able to control the minds of the weaklings even..."

* * *

><p>Daphne Greengrass knew she would lose Harry if she wouldn't do <strong>something <strong>the sooner the better. She was sitting on her bed in Slytherin's fourth year girls dorm, curtains closed and a privacy ward cast on them. First this Weasly bitch, now this French.. Who? yes, bitch. Her odds were becoming less and less with every second. She wasn't a veela - she was a scion of a Noble House, which meant a lot. She wasn't ugly the last time she checked herself in the mirror too, quite the opposite - she didn't need some silly aura to make every straight young man in Hogwarts drool.

She was Daphne Greengrass and she would be damned if she didn't find out what was this **something**.

* * *

><p>Let us return a bit back in the time for a moment. To the day when Harry went with Fleur to show her Hogwarts' grounds.<p>

Hermione watched as the pair walked away from them. She was happy for her friend and wished him only well. If there was someone who should be happy, it was Harry.

"Ekskyuze me." Someone behind her said with heavy Slavic accent.

She turned around to see Viktor Krum, not the less, in front of her.

She gave him a polite smile, although she was a bit cautious about him.

"Yes?"

He smiled back. Actually, when he smiled he was much more attractive.

"My name iz Viktor, what iz yours?"

"Hermione, it is nice to meet you, Viktor." She said.

"Ven I first arrived here I never sout zere vood be such a beautiful girl. Viz brain in her skull too." Now that was a strange way to compliment her, but she had to give him a score for his courage.

"You have a book-bag with you, let me carry it and let's go to ze Library and study togezer." That should be interesting.

Although his words could be interpreted as rude, they weren't in truth. And he was sweet in his own way and a true gentleman - moving off a chair for her first and only then sitting himself and all that.

Time had passed quickly for the two - Hermione hadn't even noticed it was late until Madam Pince shooed them out unceremoniously.

"I really vood like to study viz you some time again, Germion." Oh well, she could afford allowing one single person to call her "Germion".

"Me too, Viktor, bye."

"Let me conduct you to your dorm's first."

She gave him her most brilliant smile.

Such a gentleman!

* * *

><p>If some facts were different, Ronald Billius Weasly would be teasing one Luna Lovegood. But you can dream of "what if?" forever yet facts were facts. You couldn't just take an eraser and wipe them out.<p>

Here he was, kissing his blonde girlfriend which for sure wanted him to suffocate. Though he didn't want to complain even by a bit. They continued snogging for some half an hour when suddenly she grabbed his crotch possessively and began unbuttoning his white shirt (simple yet clean and ideally straightened) - actually she began tearing it.

Now that was something new!

...

Hell, what was that spell..?

**AN: Ta-Da! I know it's small update, but I don't have much time until tomorrow. See you in a few days! And REVIEW! AAAAARGHHH! REVIEW!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen: You made a grade.**

**AN: the chapter wasn't checked for the grammar, sorry, but 'me need sleep'.. Tomorrow (Shit, always first try to write it with double m) I will correct the mistakes.**

Albus Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk in his office, his mind working on every possible situation that could happen with Harry during the Tournament. He was very confident about his apprentice's skill, reflexes and wit, but Harry for him was like a son that he had never had, and he was very worried, like any normal parent would. Dragons weren't so legendary for nothing - lightning-fast speed, thick skin that absorbed all but the most powerful of spells, rendering them harmless, and their fire breath wasn't something you would ever want to experience on yourself at any time. Maybe he should have given Harry the..

Knock knock knock.

"Enter" Albus said.

An opened office door revealed his old friend and companion in arms, who had the most satisfied smirk ever to be planted on his face. The said smirk would make any first year soil his or her pants in an instance. A lightning-blue eye was madly turning in every possible direction - Alastor Moody was very satisfied, and soon Albus would find out why.

"Have a seat, Alastor." The old wizard conjured a simple wooden chair in front of his table - he had known this man for more than a few decades now, and his distaste for comfort was his most prominent feature, right after his constant paranoia.

Alastor flopped in a chair, turning his both eyes directly on Dumbledore.

"Well?" Albus said.

"WELL?" Alastor shouted "Merlin's stinking socks, I'm feeling as well as a dragon that fried up the whole city and kidnapped a hundred virgins! HAHAHA! Do you want a short long version or a full long version?"

"The second one, please"

"You remember the son of Crouch? The one everybody've been thinking was dead?"

Albus nodded

"Well.. HE IS NOT!"

Alastor really regretted he hadn't taken a magical photo with him - the sight of utterly surprised Dumbledore was the most hilarious thing he'd seen in the last fifteen years of his life for sure.

"This fellow found his lord and was told to capture me and to be my impersonator here. He actually 've been planning to lock me up in my own trunk. Can you imagine it? He wanted to stuff me INTO MY OWN TRUNK!"

"It seems he haven't been successful though." Albus said, a light smile appearing on his face.

"Of course he haven't! If this shit was impersonating me you would reveal him instantly!"

True.

"When did you capture him?"

"Right before the start of the school year - he actually tried to kidnap me from my own house! MY OWN HOUSE! BWAHAHAHA!"

"Why didn't you tell me about it then?"

"No no no - I know what you'd do: send him to a trial, of course making sure that it's fare, and throw him in Azkaban for the remainder of his life." Alastor said, finally becoming serious. "But I.." He pointed at himself "I wanted answers - I wanted answers _fast_."

Albus breathed tiredly.

"Did you torture him?"

"Of course I did! Now now don't you try to make me feel miserable by that disappointed-parent look of yours! He deserved every ounce of the pain he felt!"

It was pointless to argue with Alastor - Albus knew it better than anybody else in the Wizarding World. He must spend time on more important things.

He connected his fingertips bending his arms in the elbows and stared at his friend from behind his half-moon spectacles.

"What was his plan?"

"Can't you guess yourself, Albus? What can a death eater have for a plan? An order from his lord! And what can his lord want the most right now?"

"To recover his body and to avenge himself." Albus said, nodding.

"You mean to resurrect himself and to kill all of **us **and Potter."

"At least he must make up some different plan now..." Dumbledore said quietly. His eyes had began to fill with their usual twinkle. "Now, tea?"

There was another round of thunderous laugher from Alastor.

"Hahaha! No, give me a glass of Blishen's fifteen years! And fill up one for yourself too - we need to celebrate!"

* * *

><p>Harry was brewing a brewing a simple pepperup potion on his Potions lesson when a sudden knock in the door broke a quiet stream of sound of boiling and cracking fire.<p>

Snape's eyes darkened. Harry knew for sure that if the poor fellow who was interrupting his House Head's class didn't have a **good **reason, Severus would cut him on potion ingredients.

Or her.

Daphne, who was his potions partner, had strained instantly, her ice blue eyes piercing the redhead who stood at the doorway.

Ginny smiled to her coldly, turning her crimson eyes to the potions professor.

"Professor Snape, good day, I was asked by our headmaster to bring Harry to a classroom where the Wand Weighting ceremony will be held."

Snape nodded in acknowledging turning his head at Harry.

"Mr. Potter, have you finished?"

"No, there are still three more steps to follow, Professor." Harry said.

Snape came to them bent over the cauldron.

"It's perfect, 15 points to Slytherin for being able to precisely follow the first fifteen steps. You may go now - I'm sure Ms. Greengrass is able to finish it on her own."

Harry quickly packaged all his alchemy tools and followed Ginny.

They started speaking while walking to the classroom on the fourth floor.

"How is life, Harry?" she asked him conversationally.

"Excellent, you?"

"Perfect now after you asked." She answered, her smile revealing her pearl-white ideally even teeth. "Are you prepared for the first task?"

"Well, kind of." He said, scratching his nape - he wasn't entirely sure how to properly answer her question.

"There is no 'kind of', Harry, only yes and no." She said seriously. Her face lit up. "Tell you what - let's meet on Wednesday, I'll show you a few helpful tricks. What do you say?"

"Err.. Ok."

They stopped in front of the door which led to the said classroom.

She suddenly grabbed him harshly and gave him a forceful kiss. He was completely disarmed by it. It had last for some minute or two - he wasn't sure. Though it did rocketed his mood up in the skies.

"Wednesday, 6 pm, by the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. And don't you dare to forget." She whispered to him, and left him there to smile stupidly.

Harry shook his head in disbelief - it was his karma, he thought, to attract crazy witches to himself. Well, at least they were all beautiful as much as crazy.

He slowly opened the door and entered the classroom. Ludo Bagman stood by him in a blink of the eye.

"Ah! Harry, my friend! Come in, come in! The ceremony is about to begin!" He said excitedly, shacking Harry's hand enthusiastically.

There were a few faces he didn't know. One particular made a hair on his head's backside stand up. Blonde, almost white, wavy hair, bright red lipstick, and dark green predatory eyes behind the curvy glasses. He should be more careful around her - she was certainly a reporter, and by her looks he could tell she was a very nosy one too.

The woman was currently interviewing Fleur, who was answering her questions indifferently, apparently bored by the whole procedure. Well he couldn't blame her.

Then the reporter woman had seen him, a smile, as predatory as her eyes were, appearing on her face. She quickly came up to him.

"Mr. Potter, I'm Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet, here to interview the champions." She got a parchment and a huge emerald quill from her bag. The quill floated over the parchment, obviously waiting for its mistress to begin the interviewing.

"Harry, our readers would really like to know how do you feel about being the youngest Hogwarts Champion." She began.

He smiled to her widely. Inside he felt disgusted, imitating Lockhart and all that.

"Well, I can't say I don't feel excited for sure. Also I'm honoured to have an opportunity to bring even more glory for our great institution, to open yet another page in Hogwarts' history." He said confidently. From a corner of his sight he could see his mentor nodding his head slightly in approval.

"You certainly are very confident boy, Harry." She said, pressing on the 'boy' part. "But what about how you got into the tournament in the first place? From what your fellow students told me, there was an age line which restricted everyone younger than seventeen to enter his or her name into the cup. And it was drawn by Albus Dumbledore not less!" The quill was working in overdrive. Harry was afraid that it was going to explode out of so much abuse.

"I don't want to sound arrogant, but don't forget that I'm Harry Potter, the boy who lived, and there are as much people who wish to harm me as there are those who glorify me. I don't tend to take any unnecessary risks and competing in this tournament is very dangerous."

Her face lit up - Harry knew that he made a mistake.

"So, are you saying that somebody entered your name into the cup to harm you? Don't you think, Harry, that for a person who could get around Dumbledore's age line it would be easier to just find you there and do whatever he or her wished to do with you?"

Alas, his mentor came to help him.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Ms. Skeeter, but Mr. Ollivander have come to inspect the wands - the ceremony must start now." The old wizard said with a kind smile, though Harry could see that his eyes were cold.

Rita looked like she swallowed a whole lemon, with peel, but nodded.

She nastily smiled to Harry.

"Thank you, Harry. I'm sure our readers will enjoy reading this interview."

"You are welcome, Rita" He said with a smile and walked towards the bench which was occupied by his fellow champions. There was a huge empty spot between Viktor and Fleur who looked at opposite directions - they obviously weren't fans of each other. Harry sat next to Fleur, nodding to Viktor who nodded back. French veela's face brightened when she saw him.

"Hi, Harry." She greeted him. "Excited?" She asked, cocking her head to the side and smiling.

"Hi. Yes, though not because of ceremony for sure." He answered.

"Then, what happened that makes you so excited?"

"Just you being there, Fleur." He looked deep into her eyes.

She laughed quietly, covering her mouth with her elegant hand.

Their little conversation was interrupted by Mr. Bagman who asked for everyone's attention.

"My dear friends, Mr Ollivander is ready to begin the inspection of champions' wands. Now, ladies first." He said.

Fleur stood up and came up to the old man with silvery grey eyes.

"May I see your wand, mademoiselle?" Ollivander asked her respectfully.

She gave it to him.

He expertly rotated it between his fingers, and gently waved it. A small fountain of red sparkled from its tip.

"Hmm.. A nice work.. Rosewood, nine and half inches.. and its core is... oh.." he stopped speaking in the middle.

"My grandmother's hair." Fleur said proudly.

"Interesting.." He twirled it in his hand. "I myself never use a veela hair as a wand core - it gives too much temperament to the wand." He conjured a bucket of white roses and gave it and the wand to the quarter veela. "But whatever suits you, my lady."

Fleur smiled at the old man brilliantly, inhaling the aroma.

"Thank you."

Krum was the next one to follow.

Ollivander furrowed his eyebrows.

"... Hornbeam, ten and one quarter inches, a dragon heartstring. Very nice wand for offensive magic."

"Troo" Krum confirmed.

Ollivander made his usual machinations with Krum's wand, conjured a wooden goblet, filled it with water and sipped a bit. He slowly examined the taste.

"Everything seems to be fine. Here you go." He returned the wand to its owner.

At long last Harry stood up and walked up to the wand crafter.

"Hello, Mr Ollivander." He greeted the man with a slight smile.

"Hello, Mr Potter, a lot of water passed since we met.. Let me see your wand please.."

Harry gave his wand to him.

Ollivander obviously liked to see his own handiwork much more than somebody else's.

"Holly, eleven inches, with a phoenix feather core.. Great wand for some special magic." the old man said with a smile.

He swished the wand.

'Revelarete'

A large fiery bird materialized, squeezing from the wand's tip out into the world. It started singing a beautiful song, inspiring everyone in the room, lifting their mood up.

'Finite'

He handed the wand back to Harry.

"I must say that you keep it in an excellent state, Mr Potter." Ollivander said with a smile.

"Thank you."

"Let's take a group photo, champions! Then one by one!" Rita said.

Harry slowly exhaled - it was going to be a long day..

* * *

><p>'Opprimo Conica!' Harry shouted, sharply pointing his wand at the earth under him.<p>

A giant shockwave of pure magical energy rocketed forward, sweeping everything in its reach away, crushing all the obstacles.

He heard a lone clapping behind his back. Turning around, he saw the person he'd been waiting for. Ginny Weasley smiled to him in approval.

"Not so bad, Harry." She complimented him "But what do you say about this?" She asked, stepping in front of him, her back facing him. She raised her wand with both her hands above head.

'Ferro Ungula' she whispered.

A dark violet light began radiating brightly from her wand's tip. She brought it down violently as her wand was a club and the air in the front was somebody's head.

A deafening swish crushed on Harry's poor eardrums and a huge ghostly claw with five razor sharp digits rushed forward for at least a hundred feet, obliterating everything in its way.

Well, let's just say that Harry had lost his jaw somewhere on the soil and couldn't find it for a few minutes for sure. He hadn't noticed that Ginny was facing him until she placed her right hand on his chest, close to his heart.

"So, Harry, how was it?" she asked him, already knowing his answer.

He had been silent for a few seconds, his mind searching for the right words.

"That was.. intense.."

She laughed lightly, throwing her head back.

"I can teach you.. for a price.." She told him, stroking his hair.

"What price?"

"One kiss for one spell, love."

He smiled brightly and his face started closing to hers..

* * *

><p>Only one night was left before the first task. Harry was accompanied by his two best friends in the Room of Requirement. The three were lounging lazily on comfortable sofas and chatting between themselves. A nice fireplace was swiftly wished into existence by Draco, and a little table in the middle with a jug of ice cold cranberry juice and a plate of sandwiches on it by Ron.<p>

"Harry, I know about half of the school asked you that question, but I would be a bad friend not to ask it myself. Have you prepared for the first task?" Draco asked.

Potter raised his hands to heaven, or more precisely - to the high ceiling that imitated cloudless bright blue skies.

"Why? Why everyone asks me this stupid question?" He cried out. "Of course I haven't - I want my skinny ass to be fried by a lizard that suffered from overgrowth and fiery heartburn."

"See, that's why I didn't want to ask you this question.." Draco said. "What about this g.."

"Blondie, find yourself a girlfriend. You'll never again ask anyone stupid questions. The best remedy and not painful at all." Ron interrupted the blond.

"You know, Ron, it's actually so strange that such a sweet guy doesn't have a girlfriend!" Harry batted his eyelashes, smiling brilliantly.

The two burst in laugher, while Draco frowned, a bit hurt by the truth.

"Go to hell, morons." he said quietly. Ron wiped a tear from his eye corner.

"Wow, are you going to cry, Drakie-boy?" The redhead teased. He and Harry started laughing again.

"Idiots.." Draco said smiling - he just couldn't be really angry with his friends.

* * *

><p>Harry woke up early the next day. It was around six am and obviously there wasn't anyone outside the school at such an ungodly hour. He began flexing, warming up his body, starting from his neck all the way down to his feet - it was no good for him to be burnt to death because he got a crick some time during his performance. Once he'd finished he began clearing his mind from all unnecessary rubbish.<p>

'Tempus'

It was quarter to nine already. Still there was no need for haste. He quickly cast a sequence of five different cleaning charms and began lightly jogging towards the quidditch stadium where the first task would be held.

He entered the champions' tent just in time - Ludo Bagman was beginning to explain the rules of the task.

"Harry, you've arrived just in time! Perfect! Have a seat, have a seat, please!" He cleared his throat and began explaining. "Each of you is going to face a dragon today." Krum hadn't even lift his eyebrow, Fleur was decent enough to imitate being surprised, though poorly, and Harry just cocked his head slightly to the right.

"You need to take a sham golden egg from the animal's nest. The only rule applied to this task is that you can't use anything but your magic." the three nodded their heads in understanding. Ludo grabbed a small brown cloth pouch from a small table that stood by him, untied its top and offered it to Fleur.

"As always, ladies first." He said, smiling. Fleur calmly rummaged through its content and snatched a miniature animated figure of a dragon with a small number '1' on its back. This particular dragon was much faster than its other brethren and very intelligent. All in all, he felt a bit worried about the blonde girl he recently began liking. Krum was next - he got himself a Common Welsh Green with number two on its back- pff.. lucky Bulgarian bastard. Viktor knew he was lucky too - a self-confident smirk appeared on his face.

It was Harry's turn. He put his hand into the bag.

"Ouch, why you little.." it had bitten him!

He snatched out a miniature black dragon which certainly had the most fiery temper. It had number three on its back. Well, Harry was the most 'Lucky' as always - he'd got himself the most dangerous dragon, a Hungarian Horntail. Sometimes he wondered what the heck was wrong with him..

"We will begin in five minutes step outside, to the crowd when you'll hear your name." Ludo instructed them and left the tent.

Harry heard him warming up the crowd as he did during the Quidditch World Cup.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, our dear guests, let us welcome the first competitor - the beautiful Champion of Beauxbaton - Fleur Delacour!" There was a thunderous cheer from the crowd. Mostly men, probably.

Fleur gave Harry a smile and left the tent to face her dragon.

* * *

><p>The young quarter veela was feeling terribly nervous, though she did a decent job to hide it deep in herself. She had practised the calming chant her grandmother taught her some time ago since the day Madame Maxime told her what she was going to face on the first task. Yet, her hand did give away her now, shaking slightly.<p>

The crowd welcomed her. It was divided by two halves - men and women. First were clapping and shouting with almost foolish enthusiasm, second were clapping just out of being polite and female solidarity.

The dragon wasn't very big, well, _for a dragon _- just about 20 feet long, 7 feet high. Still, it was a freaking dragon!

It watched her calmly, its intelligent eyes were measuring a potential threat.

She made a few steps forward and the dragon roared in warning - one more step and she was going to be a well-made piece of meat.

She locked her eyes on its golden ones, and began chanting. The dragon tried to shrug it off but even its powerful mind couldn't resist it for a long time - it slowly lay on the earth its eyes closing, breath evening. Along with half of the watchers that chose to have closer seats.

Without forgetting to chant she approached the nest were a pile of red eggs were lying with one fake golden one between them. She carefully took and started backing towards the exit. She was passing by the dragon when it snored a fire out of its nose. Her short robes were set on fire and she almost lost control while she was extinguishing it with an 'Aquamenti'.

When Fleur finally stepped through the exit she felt as if the weight of the whole sky was lifted from her shoulders. She slowly proceeded to the tribune for the school staff and champions and took a seat.

"Well, that was quite an original way to complete the task, wasn't it, my friends? I ask my fellow judges to follow my lead and give their scores!" Ludo's voice, empowered by the Sonorus charm, thundered. He held up a tablet with number 10 written on it.

Dumbledore gave her 8

Maxime gave 10

Crouch gave her 7, being a stern guy and all.

Karkaroff gave her 4 plus a smug smirk- now that was absolutely preposterous! The student body, well the part of it that wasn't asleep, booed in disapproval.

* * *

><p>Krum's performance? Fleur thought it was too banal, being honest with herself, though most of the student body had found it spectacular - broom riding, a nicely placed conjunctivitis curse right into the welsh dragon's eyes, the giant lizard trashing on the ground in panic (and accidentally crushing half of its own nest) and a golden egg held high towards the sky.<p>

Bah. So predictable.

Ludo gave 10 - he just was too big-hearted to give anything less.

Dumbledore gave 8

Maxime gave 6 - no wonder why

Crouch again gave 7

Karkaroff? What do you thinkhe could give his favourite?

* * *

><p>"... the champion of Hogwarts - Harry Potter!"<p>

Harry confidently entered the improvised arena and searched with his eyes for his mentor. Ah, here he was, sitting at the judges' table. He gave him a slight nod which was returned, and looked in front of him. There it was - a huge black dragon with violent yellow eyes that were glowing like the fire that was trapped within its body.

Harry started walking to the giant lizard his emerald green eyes staring unblinkingly at the beast's own.

It was obviously infuriated by the tiny man who dared to provoke it. It stood up on its hind legs, spreading its wide wing span out in warning.

He hadn't stopped.

The Horntail released a full-mouthed roar that made the very earth tremble. Harry stopped this time, not because of being intimidated, but to execute his plan.

The enraged dragon released a stream of fiery hot fire on Harry.

He started counting.

_One._

'Opprimo Conica!' a powerful shockwave blew the fire off of its way and collided with the beast's head with a blunt crashing sound in the next moment. The crowd raved in pure, practically palpable, excitement. The dragon's head was shot back - it was taken by surprise. It was barely able to balance on its legs to not sprawl on the ground like a bag of potatoes.

_Two. _

'Malleo Pugni' Harry swing his wand in a wide arc as he would swing a hammer. An invisible force hit the dragon in the legs, knocking it down.

_Three._

'Ferro Ungula' he slashed his wand top-down. The spell Ginny shown him ripped through the dragon scale like hot knife through butter, leaving five long deep gashes on its left side. The beast roared in agonizing pain.

A dead silence fell onto the crowd.

_Four._

'Virtus Cassamus' a grey beam collided with the hungarian horntail. For the next dozen minutes, it wouldn't be able to use any of its magic.

_Perfection._

'Conterns Potentia' Harry made a sharp, stab-like move in the direction of the horntail. The beast sprawled on the ground in an instance as if something incredibly heavy fell on its back. It tried to stand, but to no avail.

Harry placed his wand back in its holster without any worries and walked up to the nest. There it was - he gently took the golden egg in his both hands, finally turning to the crowd.

Harry looked in their faces: some were afraid of him, even terrified, some, mostly his fellow slytherins, were awed by his show of power and prowess, some, that hadn't cared about him, showed their respect to him, and the one of whose opinion he cared had a genuine look of being proud of his apprentice, having a small smile, hidden behind his long silvery beard.

Ludo Bagman's ability to speak was finally returned to him. He cleared his throat.

"Well.." he breathed out deeply "I must say it was the most spectacular show of magic I've seen for the last fifteen years! If I could, I would give Twenty! Ten!"

Albus smiled to Harry, picking up the tablet with 10 on it.

Maxime gave 8

Crouch had a smile on his face - he actually could smile! - a Nine! He had suddenly looked like he rejuvenated by five years.

Still, some people never change - Karkaroff gave him 4.

"Well, ain't this a surprise? We have an interesting situation now! The first place is divided between Potter and Krum, each having forty one points. Ms Delacour occupies the last place with 39 points score. That's all for today, my friends, have a good day. Dear Champions, please proceed to the tent you've been instructed in."

The three champions were standing in the middle of the tent, being given an instructions for the next task by two absolutely opposite men - Mr. Crouch, who was his usual strict himself, though he had a look of being proud about something. His perfectly ironed suit cost more than an average year salary of an average ministry worker. And cheery Ludo Bagman with a wide smile stuck to his face.

"Excellent! Magnificent! You really made a grade, all you three! I really hope that you won't slow down and continue on reaching your potential! But not today, please! Today you need to celebrate - have fun, relax, enjoy your life!" Ludo exclaimed - the man looked like he was going to explode out of all the excitement that accumulated inside of him. "Now, my lady," he turned his head to Fleur "gentlemen," to Krum and Potter "Mr Crouch here has something to say about your next task - I ask you to carefully listen to him." he pointed his hand at the before mentioned man.

Mr Crouch readjusted his tie and cleared his throat. His cold grey eyes scanned the champions as he started to speak.

"I want to congratulate you on your successful completion of the first task. The goblet of fire chose you - it alone made your stars shine brighter than of your peers. But today you've really proved your worth. Still, there are two more trials which await you. I want to tell you about the one closer. It will take place on twenty fourth February - ninety one days to prepare..."

"Bartemius, it's 92 days.." Ludo corrected.

"minus the 24th December, Ludo, remember?" Barty gave him a look that was saying 'You are testing my patience'.

"Oh. yes, of course." Bagman smiled sheepishly.

"As I've been saying - you have 91 days to prepare. It's plenty of time though you do need to manage it cleverly. You will find a clue on what awaits you on the second task in the golden eggs you have got today." he said "I wish you luck. You may go now." and dismissed them.

Harry was going to pass through the exit when Mr Crouch called him.

"Mr Potter, do you have a minute to spare?"

Harry turned to the man, smiling politely.

"Of course, Mr Crouch, and much more than just a minute."

The older man laughed light-heartedly.

"I just wanted to give you my congratulations separately." He stretched out his right hand for a handshake.

Harry shook the offered hand firmly.

"Thank you, Mr Crouch."

"You are truly the finest example for the youth of Magical Britain, Harry." He seamlessly switched on first names. "You are on the right path, young man, I hope you will bring even more glory to our great country."

"I will, Mr Crouch." Harry said with a nod.

"I know." The man said with a slight smile. "Have a good evening."

"Have a good evening to you too, Mr Crouch." Harry bid him a farewell and left the tent to see Viktor standing there by the exit. The youngest quidditch star player's face lit up.

"Ah! Garry, I olredy started sinking zat Crouch did sumesing to you." He said, shaking Harry's hand - ouch it hurt! "Congrats!"

"Thank you."

"Me and my frends are going to have a party on our ship - you and your frends are invited!" Krum said.

"At what time?"

"Came at ten pm - I vill be waiting for you at ze pier."

"I will, Viktor, see you there then." Harry said and started to walk in the direction of Hogwarts.

"See you!" Krum shouted.

* * *

><p>"Guys, Viktor invited us to the party on the Durmstrang ship. Do you want to go there with me?" Harry asked his two friends. All three were sitting on sofas in front of the fire, having a privacy ward around them so for everybody they were having some small talk.<p>

"Really?" Ron exclaimed, incredulous, almost jumping on his feet. "Why do you tell it us only now?" He looked at Harry who nodded at Draco slightly and understood - if Harry told them earlier their blond friend would find some way to sneak away from his friends to not go.

"I'm not going" Draco said simply, not even sparing a single look at them. He switched a page in his potions book. "I still have to find out five more ways of using aconite root for the essay Snape gave us."

"Arghh.. Draco, don't be such a pansy!" Ron said switching his place to seat by Malfoy. He put his long hand on the smaller guy's shoulders. "We still have two days before the Potions - TWO DAYS! Let's go! Maybe you will finally find some girl who would be as much beautiful as the place she is from is cold.. Eh? Eh?" Harry burst into laugh.. He really wished he had more time to spend with his friends and not learning something, but he knew that it would be totally irresponsible from his side.

Draco smiled. He suddenly hit Ron in the solar plexus. The hit wasn't too hard yet it made Ron loose all air from his lungs. The fact he was trying to laugh didn't help him to breathe at all.

"Thats for pansy, Ronniekins." Draco stood up and started walking to the set of stairs which led to their dorms. He looked back. "Well. Are you going or not? We have just one hour to prepare - you, Harry, still need to take a shower: you stink like the troll Granger had burnt, and you, Ron, need to change your clothes: you have a pumpkin juice spot on your robes right on the chest, for Merlin's sake!"

The two had jumped on their feet at once.

"Now, that's what I'm talking about!" Ron said, having a huge smile plastered on his face.

"Yes, sir!" Harry saluted and the trio began their preparations in good mood.

* * *

><p>The ship was closing to them as they were walking up to it.<p>

"You know, their ship looks actually much better in night with lights on its side and all." Draco observed.

The Bulgarian was already there waiting for them once he recognized them and called them out, waving.

"EEEI! Vot took you so long?" Viktor shouted. "Faster, ze guys are vaiting!"

He shook everyone's hands. "Viktor" "Viktor"

"Ron"

"Draco"

"Nice to meet you. Now come!"

They stepped onto the ship and Viktor led them through a door closest to the little wooden bridge that was connecting the ship with the pier.

Harry was pretty sure that the inside of the ship was enlarged significantly by magic - they entered into a large hallway with ten feet high ceiling with the whole package - black marble on the floor, a long red carpet with gold trimming from the start to the end, some fancy pictures (but thank Merlin, not animated) of great wizards and witches of the Eastern Europe.

They had passed by a few doors and entered in one that was on the right. As soon as the door opened, loud sound of foreign music and conversations started pounding into their ears. The room was quite big - about 36 on 30 feet. The tables were forming a rectangle, with people sitting at. There were mountains of various food that made the tables tremble. And alcohol. A lot of alcohol - champagne, Martini, vodka. Whatever you soul wished more.

"_Эй все__! ([Ei vse]__ - __hey all!). __Я буду говорить по-английски чтобы не обидеть наших иностранных друзей, и прошу вас следовать моему примеру. (__[Ya boodoo govorit' po-angliyskee shtobi ne obidet' nashih inostrannih drusey, ee proshoo vas sledovat' moemoo primeroo] - I will speak English to not upset our foreign friends, and I ask you to follow my example.)" _Krum said to his fellows, then he continued in English "Zis is Garry Potter, Ron Veeslee and Draco Malfoy - I invited zem to our evening to selebrate togezer." There was a wave of greetings in some broken English from the Durmstrang students.

"Look, blondie, some girl shows interest in you." Ron whispered into Draco's ear.

There, in the far right corner of the 'square', sat a pretty girl with long brown hair and green eyes who winked playfully at Draco. The blond gave her a small smile. She returned it tenfold.

Krum led them to the farthest side were four place were vacant, creating an improvised head of the evening table - obviously for them four. Harry and Viktor took the places in the middle, Ron by Bulgarian and Draco between Harry and pretty brown haired girl.

"Hi there. handsome." She greeted with just a slight accent, she extended her right hand to him. "Miroslava, but, please just call me Mira"

Instead of shaking, Draco gently kissed it, looking directly in her eyes.

"Whatever my lady wishes.." he said, smiling.

She giggled - such a strange guy.

"Draco Malfoy, completely in your disposition."

Viktor stood up with a shot of vodka in his hand. He cleared his throat.

"My frends" He looked at everyone "I vont to make a toast - Garry, Ron and Draco are great guys: I knov it for sure so let us all stand up and drink for ze international frendship!" Everybody cheered and drank.

The Hogwarts trio didn't want to be rude so they drank vodka too. Ron seemed to have fun, Harry too whilst Draco was coughing crazily- poor guy. Mira laughed at his reaction.

Viktor slapped his back friendly.

"Good, good! Ze second one vill be much better, I promise." He started filling up their shots. "As we like to say - between first and second you drink five more!"

Fill.

Drink.

Fill.

Drink.

Eat.

Fill.

Drink.

Eat.

Then everything became a blurry mess for Harry and his friends.

Though he did remember they removed tables and chairs, and started dancing.

Ron started crying, saying that he needed to immediately go and see his 'chamomile' (Harry thought the redhead meant Luna).

Draco lost all his 'gentelmenishness' and had first a dance with the aforementioned Russian girl then a drunk snogging session right on the floor.

Harry had been drinking with Krum for the whole night until he fell asleep on the table - it was as if somebody turned the light off in his head.

The next morning.. eww.. Harry didn't want to speak about it. Ever.

**AN: have a nice weekend. =) And don't ever mix martini and vodka)  
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